Higher Education

January 12, 2010| Posted in ISSUES, Videos

I’m only able to stand here today running for Governor because of the Minnesota values held tenaciously by the two public school teachers who raised me.

My parents recognized a duty to educate the next generation not just in their classrooms, but by working second jobs in order to help my sister and me go to college.

My generation of Minnesotans came of age in a state whose leaders understood that investment in higher education is the key to our sustained economic success.

But in the last decade we’ve badly lost our way. We were a perennial leader among states in supporting our public colleges. That distinction is gone. We’re not even average anymore.

To bridge the gap, tuition at the University of Minnesota has doubled since 1999.  And today’s MnSCU students are being asked to carry not the traditional one-third — but fully one-half — of the actual cost of in-state higher education. Not surprisingly, Minnesotans now graduating college carry the fifth highest debt load in the nation.

It is the worst kind of shortsighted folly to reduce our investment in higher education while radically increasing the tuition we charge for it. Full support of our state universities results in better research and development, more valuable patents, more innovative alumni, and more successful enterprises and jobs in Minnesota.

And my focus as Governor will also be on our community and technical colleges. Those institutions hold incredible potential for shaping Minnesota’s future. We need a renewed commitment to post-secondary education in Minnesota, and creative thinking about how to make that commitment a reality.

In addition to direct and smartly targeted investments in the University of Minnesota and our MnSCU institutions, as Governor I would provide tax relief to offset the repayment of student loans for college graduates who stay in Minnesota and return home to their communities after graduation.

And I won’t forget the growing numbers of nontraditional students who, after years in the world of work, are returning for additional education. We should provide extra incentives for employers to partner with local community colleges to fund advanced training for their workers.

Affordable higher education for more Minnesotans is not a luxury.  It’s the solution. Our parents and theirs before them understood that. It’s now time for this generation to step up. And as your next Governor I’m ready to work with all of you to make sure that happens.