Students ask legislators to mind the gap

Members of Virginia21, a student political-action group, braved cold and windy weather last week to deliver boxes of petitions to the General Assembly. The “Save $1,246 Campaign” collected the signatures of 12,531 registered voters who want legislators to fully fund higher education.

“The General Assembly promised to fill the gap, and we’re asking them to keep that promise,” said David Solimini, Virginia21 communications director.

Virginia21’s Student Steering Committee, which is made up of Student Government Association presidents from Virginia colleges, came up with idea to collect signatures and then deliver petitions to the General Assembly.

Each legislator will receive at least one box of signed petitions from registered voters in his or her district. Virginia21 chapters at Virginia’s two-year and four-year public colleges collected the signatures.

Solimini said collecting the signatures took about three weeks, but the “Save $1,246 Campaign” has been in the works since the first of the year, and Virginia21 participants are hopeful that legislators will take notice.

“They’re really scared because we’re so well organized,” said Emad Maghsoudi, vice chairman of the Student Senate at Virginia Commonwealth University. He believes lawmakers will listen.

“Legislators don’t look at us as one vote; they look at us as five,” said Maghsoudi, a political science major. He said legislators know students will talk with their friends or discuss issues with family over dinner.

Currently, higher education in Virginia faces a $377 million funding deficit. This means that for every student, there is a $1,246 gap-and either the state pays or the student.

Virginia21 wants legislators to keep their commitment to “base budget adequacy,” which is a formula developed by the General Assembly to ensure public colleges have money for enough professors and classes.

“While I think we can all agree that ‘base budget’ could, quite possibly, be the world’s most boring term, we can’t forget that it actually makes a difference in the world of Virginia students and their families,” said Eddie O’Leary, president of the VCU Student Government Association.

Base budget adequacy makes a difference to Virginia families because if the state doesn’t plug the $1,246 gap, students and their families will. O’Leary said the funding students are asking for is “middle-of-the-pack funding.”

“Our goal here is not to ask for funding greater than the average. Our goal is to ask that the state keep the promise it made to students and pay its debt to our families,” said O’Leary, who addressed the crowd as petitions were unloaded.

Virginia21 leaders said they understand that lawmakers have other priorities – such as transportation-this session. But the students said higher education should be on the agenda.

“We know there are competing priorities on our lawmakers, but we strongly believe the state must commit its general fund to meeting this existing commitment,” O’Leary said.

Solimini said higher education is crucial not just to students but to the state’s economic health because it attracts high-paying jobs.

“Higher education is key to Virginia’s economy,” he said.