Letter to the editor: Legislation targeting university funding limits students' opportunities

Eric Nelson is proposing legislation to decrease funding to the University of Pittsburgh, University of Pennsylvania and Temple University. These are premier public schools in the state. The University of Pennsylvania is an Ivy League school and supports one of the few veterinary schools in the nation. This legislation is short-sighted and limits opportunities for thousands of Pennsylvania students.

The University of Pittsburgh is one of the largest employers in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Of course, these establishments tend to be more liberal, so this move appears to be political retribution and another notch on the Republican agenda to shut down public education nationwide — fascism pure and simple. No need to burn books when you can shut down the institutions you don’t agree with.

This is an egregious attack on free speech and superior education, education that relies on critical thinking and not just robotic spewing of propagandist lies. What we need in Pennsylvania is higher wages, first and foremost. By directing funding away from our most prestigious schools, this prevents students from having opportunities for the best education possible and relegates them to third-rate schools that fail to teach relevant subjects such as meaningful history and critical thinking.

Harold Franklin Weaver

Hempfield