Whole Lotta Countin’ Goin’ On    by Bill Lyne    www.ufwsblog.org 

At the end of the day, politics is about counting.  Here in Washington, for example, folks in Olympia and beyond are counting, counting, and recounting.  The house and senate budget writers at the eye of the storm are counting how many dollars they’re going to cut from where.  Every time they do a new budget scenario, they then go count how many of their colleagues will vote for which version.  Those people in turn start counting what their vote will cost them in constituent votes and campaign donations.  One of the keys to democracy lies in the fact that those who count most clearly usually end up running things. 

This year, one particular count has gone up dramatically.  The legislator bromide that no one ever hears from anybody about universities is no longer true.  Thanks to the efforts of a whole variety of groups, including the Washington Student Association, the College Promise Coalition, Western Advocates, UW Impact, the Public School Employees, the Independent Colleges of Washington, and the higher ed members at SEIU, legislators have been hearing from alumni, students, parents, faculty, and staff about the need to save our public universities. 

There have also been community conversations and town hall meetings all over the state focused on higher education.  People across the state are realizing that we can’t decimate the state support for public universities and expect them to survive, and they’re letting our representatives know that.

Legislators will, of course have to weigh the choices they make about universities against their other political and ideological commitments.  But here at the blog, we’re feeling pretty certain that neither the issue nor the coalitions that have been built around it are going away. 

For those faithful blog readers who haven’t already joined us, sign up now:

College Promise Coalition-- www.collegepromisewa.com

Western Advocates-- www.wwuadvocates.org

UW Impact-- www.uwimpact.org

FYI PAC-- www.fyipac.org