There is much tension on Albright’s campus about Governor Corbett speaking at the Commencement Ceremony on May 22. Many students and faculty are frustrated, angry and appalled that he would come speak about education at a private institution when he just made extreme budget cuts to Pa.’s public school K-12 education system, nearly $550 million and $650 million in higher public education costs. AOL news goes into more detail about PA budget cuts. http://www.aolnews.com/2011/03/08/tom-corbett-budget-5-painful-cuts-in-pennsylvania/
Many Albright students feel as though this is a slap in the face because it affects them directly when they graduate, it affects the children in the public school system because due to the cuts, many won’t be able to have the best education.
So, to get a feel on how frustrated and angry people are on campus about the Governor coming to speak, I focused on interviewing education majors, being as though they want to be teachers one day and it affects them the most. It is a controversial situation because students have different views on whether he should come speak or not. Three people I interviewed who feel strongly towards the recent Pa. budget cuts and to the Governor speaking at the commencement ceremony are Dr. Bekken, professor of Communications, senior Political Science major Michelle Reinhart, senior Political Science and Communications major and Meaghan Washington, watch as they speak about their views.
Tiffany Wells, a junior majoring in Education and Spanish says, “I just feel like as a Commencement Speaker, someone who is taking so much away from education shouldn’t be the one to speak at graduation, especially since Albright is most known for their education program.”
Taylor Mitchell, a freshman majoring in Early Childhood Development says, “I think it’s a bad idea for him [Corbett] to come speak at the commencement because he’s making all these cuts and there’s a lot of education majors here, I don’t think it’s appropriate and especially since all the education majors who are graduating are trying to make a statement during commencement if he is here and I think it would just put a bad word on Albright and a bad word on what he’s doing. So I think they should find a different commencement speaker for graduation”
Anna Berzins, a junior majoring in French and education says that she doesn’t have a problem with him speaking at commencement, “I have nothing against him, I knew that whoever the future governor would have been it would have fallen into their laps, so it’s definitely not a personal thing.
Word around campus is that some education majors plan to protest at the commencement when Governor Corbett speaks, and I asked students how they felt about that.
Berzins states, “Governor Corbett should not be disrespected because he now has to deal with this situation and now obviously this country is not financially well-off right now, I mean we’re in economic crisis and while it’s not as bad as it has been in the past, we’re still in transition period and we’re still establishing getting finances, I don’t really have a problem with it because I feel like he still has best interest in mind and while I don’t think that the education cuts were allocated as they should have been, I think it’s very inconsiderate, I don’t think it’s very good at all because it shouldn’t be a personal attack, it’s just business.” I guess we will see how this turns out when the Governor comes out to speak on May 22, if the protests will happen or not and if someone is going to take a stand.
Here is a link to Corbett speaking on the budget cuts. http://www.myfoxphilly.com/dpp/news/budget_reform/030811-education-slammed-in-pa.-budget-cuts Here is a link to how the city of Reading, Pa. is being affected by the budget cuts. http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=303963 Here is a link to how Union workers, especially teachers are being affected by the budget cuts, losing jobs etc. in the city of Philadelphia. http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Philly-School-District-Plans-3820-Job-Cuts-120809839.html
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