For the first time in a long time, I have real optimism because of two significant events that bode well for the future of Northwest Indiana.
The first is Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott’s College Bound program. McDermott’s proposal would provide up to $7,500 annually to children of Hammond property owners for higher education within Indiana. Any Hammond student above a certain grade-point average would qualify.
At its most basic, College Bound will give to deserving Hammond students the opportunity to pursue higher education without having to be concerned about finding sufficient funds. This plan can change the very culture of failure that has permeated the former industrial cities of NWI by making higher education a premier value.
But most importantly, this plan will rejuvenate the home-owning middle class that has been deserting Hammond. This would not be just any middle class, but a middle class that believes in the value of higher education and, therefore, would demand competency on the part of the public school administrators.
The second great event is the announcement by John Aguilera that he will not run for re-election as an area representative in the Legislature. This man simply forgot that he represented NWI and thought he was representing Muncie, Lafayette and Bloomington.
In case you missed it, in my last column, I argued that it is wrong for students attending one state-funded university to get double the monetary support from our state government than do students attending other state-funded universities. I identified Aguilera as one of three officials who were in a position to make a difference, but can’t or won’t.
Well, I hit a nerve. Aguilera sent me a nice letter — well, maybe not so nice — threatening to sue me for defamation of character. I didn’t know you could defame a politician; they usually are pretty good at doing that themselves.
Aguilera is upset. He is not to blame for Purdue University Calumet losing $500,000 per year for higher education.After all, he was only going along with what the administration requested on behalf of PUC. Purdue accepted a budget cut for PUC, PUC administrators didn’t overly object and, according to Aguilera, his only course of action was to comply.
Note to John: that’s the problem. You’re the elected official. Purdue administrators don’t answer to the taxpaying public, but you do. Purdue should not tell you — our elected official — how to spend taxpayers’ money.
PUC administrators won’t ask for more money than what West Lafayette will allow. But you don’t have to play by their rules.Why should you allow more state dollars to go to the education of citizens in other parts of the state and not fight to get equality in higher education funding for citizens in your part of the state?
Aguilera wants a retraction and an apology because he’s no fraud. His legal residence is in East Chicago and, in 2004, the Indiana Election Board said so.
Aguilera is right. That was the ruling of the Indiana Election Board. So what? A “summer” home in Munster? Who lives in East Chicago and “summers” in Munster? Sounds like perpetrating a fraud to me.
What could make me more optimistic? Mayors George Pabey and Scott King following McDermott in making higher education the No. 1 value in NWI by actually putting money where it matters. King could start by helping fund IUN’s clinical research center that Indiana University has offered to build in Gary.
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