O'Malley rebukes Ehrlich on higher education

[tabmasterflash]

O'Malley rebukes Ehrlich on higher education
He criticizes funding cuts, tuition hikes in campaign speech at College Park

By Julie Bykowicz
Sun Reporter
Originally published January 2, 2006, 2:20 PM EST

COLLEGE PARK // A day before Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. announces his plans for spending next year on public universities and colleges, Mayor Martin O'Malley blasted the governor on funding decreases and tuition increases -- a sign that higher education is emerging as a hot campaign topic.

"The governor is choosing to make higher education less affordable and less possible," O'Malley said today in his first campaign speech focusing on higher education, given at the University of Maryland-College Park campus, where Ehrlich also will speak tomorrow.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-omalley0102,1,2491736.story?coll=bal-home-headlines

[Frances]

1. I hope that O'Malley keeps Ehrlich on the defense

on this issue. It will be very important for young white males who have been susceptible to the Repub message. Hopefully, the thought of losing out on a chance for a college education will trump the crime issue which has played so well for Repubs and which I am sure they plan to hammer O'Malley with.

[AuntiBush]

5. That Hammer Reaches Far, Thanks to Ehrlich.

Even in local areas like Harford County (mostly local Republican seats held) everyone in the region can't wait to vote against Ehrlich.

Even they say O'Malley gets their vote.

[newyawker99]

2. Hi tabmasterflash!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[indigo]

3. Here is UMCP's coverage of Ehrlich's speech

The Diamondback (student paper)

[AuntiBush]

4. Everyone I know & Everyone They Know says O'Malley Gets Their Vote

Everyone. O'Malley is getting votes from everything I'm hearing since earlier this year.

The state of Maryland needs to oust Ehrlich. He's tied in with those Abramhoff money-scandals.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/12/31/124057/82
http://dailydelay.blogspot.com/2005/05/dish-delay-dirt-about-your-rep.html
Follow the money: :) http://www.campaignmoney.com/finance.asp?type=is&cycle=02&criteria=MD&length=max&titledesc=Maryland+Politics

[LiberalEsto]

6. O'Malley's right. U of Maryland is horrible.

Last year both my daughters attended UMCP. One dropped out because she couldn't stand it any more. They treat students like crap. It's very hard to get a dorm room, and if you're forced to commute, like both of mine, you're assigned parking in the outer boondocks. The one that dropped out said it took her 40 minutes to get from her assigned lot to some of her classrooms, after a difficult 25-mile commute on the Beltway. The campus police do nothing but issue parking tickets, which is why the campus is so unsafe.

Classes are constantly being moved to new locations without notice, which means you can walk 40 minutes to your class, find a note on the door, and then have to hike to another part of the campus because your class was moved. My husband was taking evening computer science classes at UMCP several years ago, and this happened so often that he ended up missing many of his classes and accumulating costly parking tickets. He quit. It wasn't worth the aggravation or the bullshit bureaucracy.

Many instructors barely speak English at UMCP. Both my husband and daughters say post-lecture discussion classes are almost worthless because the instructors leading them were unintelligible.

My younger daughter transferred to Maryland last fall from another college. She still doesn't have a dorm assignment. For spring semester she was only able to get into two of her needed classes - the other two courses were all filled. What a waste of time -- she will have to take two summer classes, IF she can get into them, just to get to be a junior in September.

Maryland is too crowded, and doesn't offer enough class sections, or on-campus housing, or commuter parking, for the students already enrolled. Forget about complaining - just take a number and get in line. They've heard it all and they don't care.

And the tuition just keeps going up by leaps and bounds. The quality goes down.

[lhfang]

7. yep

good point about univ of maryland