Big Brother knows whatās best

By Claudia Hibbert-BeDan
The Metropolitan

Colorado legislators know that knowledge is power.

This is why Senate Bill 70, which provides tuition vouchers for schooling at one of Coloradoās community colleges, passed 34-1 through the Senate on Feb. 9. The measure now sits in the Houseās Education Committee.

The bill, if it is passed into law, would help welfare recipients to attain the skills they need to enter the job market and get off the public dole.

The measure, sponsored by Sen. Gloria Tanner, D-Denver, proposes that the Department of Human Services and the State Board for Community Colleges and Occupational Education analyze the job market and recommend what jobs need to be filled. The state will then pay for those classes that will help people get those jobs.

Therein lies the problem. The legislators havenāt defined ćjob market,ä and they are taking away the power of education by dictating what people should do.

Education is about opening the mind to new ideas. But this bill limits people to be nothing more than what the state thinks they should be. The state will not pay for any

class that it doesnāt think will net an income. It will only pay for required courses under an approved degree or certificate program.

Tanner said the billās goal is to assure that people will take courses that will

lead to a job. But doesnāt everybody do that? This is why people go to college.

It doesnāt serve anyone if the state pays for an education that people donāt really want. School doesnāt come cheap, so state lawmakers believe that the people who qualify for tuition vouchers need direction.

ćItās really based on this whole philosophy of welfare reform because of the fact that people have to get off welfare and go to work,ä says Cecelia Garcia, Tannerās legislative aide.

ćAnd thereās some people, they donāt know the job market. Somebody thatās the fifth generation person on AFDC, how would they know the job market?ä

Tanner said the bill will ensure quality training in a short amount of time. Under the provisions of state welfare reform, welfare recipients only have two years before they are cut off, she said.

So the bill has some merits. But it doesnāt allow much flexibility, a necessary component of education. Some people arenāt good at math, so why shouldnāt they be able to take philosophy or creative writing as long as they have a plan to use it in their field?

Everybody else has that opportunity. It doesnāt seem fair that people ÷ just because they canāt pay for their education ÷ should be told they can only be what the state believes they should be.
Itās better than nothing, I guess. But if the goal is to help people realize their options, this bill is counterproductive and only helps to keep certain people in their places.