Health care reform leaves LC waiting
By Travers La Ville
Correspondent
Published November 20, 2009
Lee College is awaiting final decisions in Washington on healthcare reform to dissuade fears of cuts to the American Graduation Initiative.
The graduation initiative is among many bills waiting in limbo for healthcare reform to pass through legislation. The bill appropriates $12 billion toward reform of community colleges in the U.S., but Washington’s tug-of-war over dollars going to healthcare is impeding the bill’s progress.
“The healthcare bill has so many implications that it’s stalling virtually everything on the table right now,” Murphy said. “Its really just a coincidence that it's stalling our bill of interest as well.”
The college saw an eleven percent hike in enrollment this fall, and is highly interested in what the initiative has to offer in terms of funds for student retention.
In the bill's current state, it wold phase out third party lending, leaving students with lower-interest loans.
The regents also approved the usage of the Performing Arts Center for the Baytown Little Theater's summer musical.
After much debate, the Lee College Board of Regents decided to once again welcome the BLT to the college.
The argument at the meeting was whether it was the fiscal responsibility of the college to make sure that any cost incurred by the summer performance would come out of the schools budget, versus the value of community use of the venue.
“It comes down to the issues, not the people involved,” Murphy said. “If you let it get to a personal level, at the end of the day you have still have lost more than a few thousand dollars.
“I think there were strong arguments on both sides.”
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