JOE SANGER

CAMPAIGN STATEMENT

When I was a freshman at the University of Michigan in the Autumn of 1955, the full time (12-18) credit hours) resident undergraduate tuition was $100 per semester. For the 2009-2010 academic year, the comparable charge is $5,735 per semester, an increase of 5635%. At the same time, the general price level as measured by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis has increased from 26.8 to 213.2, an increase of 695%. The cost of tuition over a 55 year period has escalated at 8.1 times the rate of inflation. An astounding and totally unconscionable price increase!

In addition to the exorbitant tuition increase, due to required course scheduling problems, many parents and students are now required to pay for a 5th year.
 
At the same time that tuition costs have been increased at such an astounding rate, the quality of the education has declined. Many graduates today have never read either the Declaration of Independence or The Constitution of the United States, and are economic illiterates, but they have been heavily indoctrinated in the collectivist ideology and the alley cat morals of the state sponsored false pagan religion of “political correctness”. Shakespeare and Plato are giving way to “How to be Gay”.

It is time to end the unconscionable price increases, to freeze tuition at reduced rates by state law if necessary, and to restore financial responsibility in the management of the University. It is time to terminate the illegal use of tax dollars and public facilities for ideological indoctrination and to restore the University to its original role as an educational institution.