In The News: Education

Michael Widmer of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation says the goals of the program are admirable, but the money just isn't there.

"We don't have the dollars to do it," said Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. "It's not that we don't believe in the virtue. We don't have the money."

Michael J. Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a sharp critic of the turnpike bailout, said the governor should bring his power to bear to help resolve the student loan crisis. "With something of this magnitude, it's incumbent on the administration to take the lead and try to find a solution," Widmer said. He said that the universities and colleges, which all lobbied for the creation of the state lending authority nearly 30 years ago, have enough financial reserves to offer more help.

"Even if casinos arrive in Massachusetts, their revenue would likely cover only a quarter of what the Readiness agenda asks for, according to Michael J. Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. The state is already looking at a billion dollar deficit for fiscal 2009 (which starts Tuesday), he said. He hasn't priced out the Readiness agenda, but he estimated its cost at more than $1 billion."

"'The notion that somebody could be collecting a full salary and full retirement benefits really is an abuse and is very troubling,' said Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. 'In effect, it is double dipping. It's this kind of practice that undercuts the public trust in government.'"

"A Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation report in 2006 said that giving tuition breaks would not cost the state money but prompt hundreds of illegal immigrants to enroll in public higher education, earning the state millions of dollars in tuition."

"'This is going to get very difficult very fast,' Michael J. Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, told The Standard-Times.

"'It's clear we don't have the money to do this in the short term. Maybe we don't have the money to do this in the long term. It depends on how the economy performs over the next decade,' he said."

"However, their most politically challenging task will be looking at revamping the way that public schools are funded, said Michael Widmer, who is serving on the governor's commission and is the executive director of the watchdog Massachusetts Taxpayer Foundation."

"MICHAEL WIDMER: I think the state's entering a very difficult period in which it's going to be extremely difficult to maintain the present level of services in health care and education and human services and transportation, let alone any significant expansion like this."

"The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation estimated that if students could pay in-state rates, as many as 600 illegal immigrants would enroll in college a year, out of 160,000 in the public system, bringing in about $2.5 million in tuition and fees. The group estimated that only about 100 such students were enrolled in 2006."