Missed opportunities on education

JAKE OLIVEIRA, 20, a political science junior at Framingham State College, was an early volunteer in Deval Patrick's campaign for governor. He is also a student representative on the state Board of Higher Education. On Wednesday, he was at the State House, imploring Patrick and the Legislature to live up to their rhetoric on supporting public colleges and universities in Massachusetts.

"My roommate has maxed out his credit cards paying his tuition and fees," said Oliveira before taking the podium at a rally for public higher education funding. "We have great professors taking early retirement because of budget cuts. Building fees are falling on our backs. We need a basic recognition that a public college education matters."

The rally was held the same day that Patrick met with state college officials at Bridgewater State. During the campaign, he told students at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, "I know your mandatory fees are higher than your tuition. I know that some of your buildings are fine and some are falling apart. I know that you need resources here."

After winning election, he went back to UMass-Amherst to say he wanted to be a "champion of higher education." He reversed $23 million of Romney administration cuts for the five campuses of UMass. This week, his education adviser, Bridgewater State President Dana Mohler-Faria, said Patrick should create a Cabinet-level position for education, from preschool through college.

But Patrick, despite repeating his desire to be a "champion," again issued what is becoming his customary caution after being handed a $1 billion deficit by Romney. He told the presidents, "You have to help me market public education," in part by looking "cooperatively to get some costs out of the system."

This stance is causing some criticism. Last week, Pre-K Now, a Washington-based preschool advocacy group supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts, published a report that praised what it said was a record number of 29 states that are increasing preschool funding. But it cited Patrick for "Missed Opportunities" and "Short Shrift" for flat funding.

"No new governor entered office with a more favorable environment for pre-k for all than did Governor Patrick, and so, his failure to act decisively represents an opportunity sorely missed," the report said.

For now, most education advocates are giving Patrick some grace to deal with the deficit. But the student activists and professors who were on Beacon Hill this week want to see just how much Patrick will champion their cause.

"We are aware that it is going to be a process," said Rachel Rubin, 42, an American studies professor at UMass-Boston. "But there are places in the corporate tax loopholes where people have gotten an easy ride and he can raise significant funds." She said that because of previous cuts in the Romney years, "the teachers are on a rollercoaster and students cannot learn on a rollercoaster. If you stay on a rollercoaster too long, you just get sick to your stomach."

Mishy Leiblum, 22, a student trustee at UMass-Amherst, and currently studying for a master's degree in labor relations after graduating from the university, said she sees too many friends give up on higher education as the average amount of money borrowed by public college undergraduates has grown to more than $15,000, according to statistics in the minutes of the state Board of Higher Education.

"Even state college is becoming a gift of the poor to the wealthy in taxes," said Leiblum, who worked her way up from dropout to GED to community college to UMass-Amherst. "My mother had to take two jobs to help me get through school. It feels like the flagships like Amherst are treating students more and more as consumers, trying harder to attract wealthier out-of-state students with sushi nights, lobster nights, and flat-screened TVs in lounges than figuring out how to help students who are the most likely to stay here after graduation, public high school graduates."

Oliveira said the time is over for the Legislature to say there is no money. Massachusetts is near dead last in the nation for per-capita spending on higher education, according to statistics kept at Illinois State University.

"I went to a conference in D.C. where I talked to students in Virginia and other states that had so much more investment than we have here, Oliveira said. "We're here because we want to see our state make that investment in us."

Derrick Z. Jackson's e-mail address is jackson@globe.com.