Dismayed by Bevin plan

When people find out I’m a professor, they always ask if students have gotten worse.

I have to disappoint them; University of Kentucky students are smarter and better prepared than they were a couple of decades ago.

The biggest change is that they work a lot more to earn money for college. As state appropriations dwindle and universities raise tuition to compensate, students are the ones who literally pay the price.

That’s why I was dismayed by Gov. Matt Bevin’s plan to divert money from need-based scholarships to “workforce development programs,” whatever that means. Polling my classes, I discovered that a third of my students take six or more classes a semester and work 30-plus hours a week, trying to graduate quickly without massive debt.

Overworked and exhausted, they struggle to do justice to their studies. If anything, they need more support, not less.

I assume this repurposing of scholarship money is linked to Bevin’s plan to herd students into particular majors under the misguided notion that only engineering majors get jobs.

I fear these decisions will increase the burden on many — probably most — of our students, making it more expensive to get the kind of liberal arts training so many employers prize.

I hope the governor will reconsider his priorities and support all Kentucky students.

This story was originally published February 14, 2016 at 7:45 AM with the headline "Dismayed by Bevin plan."