00                      SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 2                                                                     
01 Urging the United States Congress to establish a federal program to rebuild student                                     
02 access to public higher education in Alaska and elsewhere and to appropriate sufficient                                 
03 funding for that purpose.                                                                                               
04 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                               
05       WHEREAS the global financial crisis has brought a renewed focus on the task of                                  
06 strengthening our public universities as the key to our country's long-term economic viability                          
07 and continued prosperity; and                                                                                           
08       WHEREAS, although the President of the United States and the United States                                      
09 Congress have appropriated massive amounts of American taxpayers' dollars to stem the                                   
10 financial bleeding on Wall Street, it is not clear what commitment will be made to rebuild our                          
11 human infrastructure; and                                                                                               
12       WHEREAS individuals from all walks of life and political persuasions agree that                                 
13 broad access to high quality public higher education is key to a positive economic outcome                              
14 for the American people, and that the very survival of a strong United States economy                                   
15 requires a highly educated workforce; and                                                                               

01       WHEREAS affordable, accessible, quality higher education is not only good for an                                
02 individual's financial success but, more importantly, is also essential for our society's                               
03 prosperity; and                                                                                                         
04       WHEREAS stakeholders in Alaska's education community have for years advocated                                   
05 for proper funding for high quality public higher education that is accessible and affordable to                        
06 every Alaskan; and                                                                                                      
07       WHEREAS, because of increasingly dire economic conditions and modest levels of                                
08 federal support, an erosion of public resources dedicated to Alaska's universities can be                               
09 anticipated; and                                                                                                        
10       WHEREAS declining state and federal support for public higher education has                                     
11 translated into fewer classes and larger class sizes, compounding costs and impeding students'                          
12 timely progress toward completion of their degrees; and                                                                 
13       WHEREAS higher education has become increasingly unaffordable to middle-class                                   
14 and working-class Americans, raising barriers to attending college in Alaska and across the                             
15 United States and threatening the standing of the United States in the international                                    
16 competition for a trained workforce; and                                                                                
17       WHEREAS, between 1982 and 2007, college tuition and fees rose three times as fast                             
18 as median family income after adjusting for inflation; and                                                              
19       WHEREAS, in the past decade, the number of undergraduate borrowers has increased                              
20 50 percent, and the inflation-adjusted total of student debt has doubled; and                                           
21       WHEREAS Alaska has the lowest graduation rate among the 50 states for first-year,                               
22 first-time college students; and                                                                                        
23       WHEREAS Alaska ranks at the bottom of the 50 states for the percentage of degrees                               
24 awarded for each 100 undergraduate students; and                                                                        
25       WHEREAS fewer than one in five Alaskans 18 - 24 years of age, barely more than                                  
26 one-half the national average, are enrolled in college; and                                                             
27       WHEREAS Alaska is one of only two states in which college entrance scores have                                  
28 dropped; and                                                                                                            
29       WHEREAS, since 2000, tuition fees for the University of Alaska have increased                                 
30 substantially; and                                                                                                      
31       WHEREAS students and families in the state rely on the University of Alaska to                                  

01 educate our future entrepreneurs, business owners, peace officers, educators, and public                                
02 officials, each of whom play an important role in the state's economy; and                                              
03       WHEREAS, the federal government has allocated $700,000,000,000, more than 10                                    
04 times the size of the fiscal year 2007 budget of the United States Department of Education, to                          
05 bail out Wall Street; and                                                                                               
06       WHEREAS $700,000,000,000 could be used instead to send 5,400,000 students to                                    
07 public universities in the United States;                                                                               
08       BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the President of the                                     
09 United States and the United States Congress to enact a "New Deal for a New Millennium for                              
10 Higher Education" that will enable Alaska and other states to rebuild the states' public higher                         
11 education systems; and be it                                                                                            
12       FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the United States                                      
13 Congress to establish a federal program to rebuild student access to public higher education                            
14 that includes                                                                                                           
15            (1)  funding in the amount of $70,000,000,000, 10 percent of the amount                                      
16 allocated to bailout Wall Street;                                                                                       
17            (2)  college grants similar to the World War II era G.I. Bill of Rights;                                     
18            (3)  an increase in funding for Pell grants for lower income students; and                                   
19            (4)  student loan debt forgiveness.                                                                          
20       COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of                             
21 the United States; and the Honorable Lisa Murkowski and the Honorable Mark Begich, U.S.                                 
22 Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska                                       
23 delegation in Congress.