Megan Reynolds
Editor-in-Chief
Breanna Harris
Contributing Writer
Emily Shepherd
Contributing Writer
College affordability
In their recent gubernatorial campaigns, both Gov. Matt Bevin and Governor-elect Andy Beshear highlighted their concerns over college affordability in Kentucky.
College affordability was a hot topic in the gubernatorial election, and rightfully so, as Kentucky was recently ranked eighth worst in the nation, according to a report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
After Murray State’s recent 2.8 percent increase in tuition cost, students and their families are finding themselves faced with mounting debt.
“For far too many Kentuckians, a college education is financially out of reach,” according to Andy Beshear’s campaign website. “And crushing student loans are burying many of those who do go to college under a mountain of debt.”
Beshear said he fought against for-profit colleges and secured $5 million in restitution or debt relief for students as attorney general.
“And I stopped Matt Bevin when he tried to illegally cut the budgets of our universities and community colleges,” Beshear said.
Kentucky is one of 19 states to cut funding for higher education by more than 20 percent per student between 2008 and 2018, according to the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy website. Between 2008 and 2018, lawmakers cut their per-student spending by 25.6 percent. To contextualize, that’s $2,792 less. This decline nearly doubles the national average of 13 percent, or $1,220.
“It is very important, as students, that college is affordable for everyone,” Jacqueline Stephenson, a senior from St. Louis, Missouri, said. “I know quite a few of my friends who have dropped out of college because it has become so expensive.”
High tuition rates can discourage students from enrolling in college for fear of the inability to pay for their degree. Debt accumulation from those tuition rates is also a deterrent.
Increases in tuition rates also cut down on campus diversity. Students of color, students from low-income households and more would lose representation on campus, according to the KCEP.
“There have been so many cases where I had to consider whether or not I could continue as a student at Murray State because I receive out-of-state tuition that makes it more expensive to attend,” Janae Pembrook Ward, a junior from St. Louis, Missouri, said.
The deep cuts to public higher education funding over the last decade along with the rising pension costs for colleges and universities has shifted more of the costs to students.
“Without student loans, I would not be able to afford to even go to college,” Tameia Brown, a senior from Radcliff, Kentucky, said. “It is just crazy how much tuition has increased since I came here as a freshman almost four years ago.”
Beshear told a crowd of supporters at a last-minute campaign stop at the Higgins House in Murray the day before the election that public education, including higher education, wouldn’t last with four more years of Bevin at helm.
“The future of higher education is on the line tomorrow because Murray State and our other universities don’t survive another four years under Matt Bevin,” Beshear said.
Pensions
Since 2009, Murray State’s contribution to the Kentucky Employee Retirement System has jumped 73 percent.
“To put this new rate of 83.43 percent in perspective, Murray State was paying a KERS pension rate of 10.01 percent in 2009,” President Bob Jackson said.
The rising pension rates led to an increase in educators taking to the polls on Election Day.
Not only was Kentucky ranked as one of the worst states in terms of college affordability, but according to 24/7 Wall St., the Commonwealth was ranked as having the worst-managed pension fund in the nation. To rank the pension funds, the financial news website reviewed the average pension funding ratio, which is the market value of a pension fund as a percentage of the total benefits owed to current or retired public employees from 2017.
“As pension costs rise, it places a great deal of strain on the budget and crowds out funding for other public services like education, public safety and infrastructure,” Andrew Morelock, associate professor of political science, said. “For universities like Murray State, these additional costs must be addressed somehow, possibly leading to tuition increases for students.”
Morelock said the pension crisis is an intricate problem that has distinct differences between the pension plans of university professors and K-12 teachers.
“Each of those plans is different, and each has different costs, different benefit structure,” Morelock said. “The level of underfunding is different, all of them are underfunded. It’s just that some of them are incredibly underfunded. There is a plan for teachers, for state police, for members of the state judiciary, one for the state legislatures, for hazardous and nonhazardous work… Again, it gets complicated.”
Governor-elect Andy Beshear has a history of fighting for pensions as attorney general. In 2018, Beshear went to the Supreme Court during a revision of the pension plan and argued on behalf of the people for their promised pensions.
However, for the future, Morelock said the question for Beshear would be whether or not his plans are politically feasible.
“From a financial perspective, the pension issue is one of the most serious policy problems facing the state today,” Morelock said.
Beshear revealed his plans to solve the pension problem while on the campaign trail with Jacqueline Coleman, lieutenant governor-elect, who is the first active educator since Martha Layne Collins to serve in that role.
In a debate hosted by Kentucky Education Tonight on Oct. 28, Beshear said he plans to legalize gaming and medical marijuana to generate a revenue stream and help fund pensions and public education.
“We lose over $550 million of revenue every year to [Indiana, Missouri, Ohio, West Virginia and Tennessee] just to casinos before sports betting or any of the rest,” Beshear said. “If we expand gaming, we put that money directly to the pension system. That frees up dollars in the general fund we can use for public education, health care and job creation.”
Beshear said he will not sign a budget into law unless it puts education first. To further the support of public education, he said he will raise teacher salaries in addition to solving the pension problems.
He plans to provide a $2,000 across-the-board pay raise to prioritize public school teachers and aid the statewide teacher shortage.
“We are not promising too much to public education because there are so much public education needs,” Beshear said. “Our $2,000-a-year raise, which we are not giving to anybody, these teachers have earned, is about solving that shortage.”
Beshear plans to open the door to other revenue streams to fund pensions in addition to his legalization of expanded gaming and medical marijuana.
“The first thing we’re going to do is rescind Matt Bevin’s Medicaid waiver where he’s going to spend $270 million of taxpayer dollars just to kick 95,000 people off their health care,” Beshear said on KET.
In an episode of “Hey Kentucky!” Beshear said the focus of his campaign was to support the public servants who work diligently. He said his administration will protect Kentucky’s teachers. Beshear also promised a seat at the table for teachers so the promises over pensions can be kept.
“Our public servants go to work every day to keep our communities safe, educate tomorrow’s leaders—our children—or put themselves in harm’s way,” Beshear said on his website, andybeshear.com, concerning pension plans. “The least we can do is protect the promised pension benefits they have paid into during their years of service.”
