Ode to Budget Cuts...

In a time of rising gas prices, the Metro Council has proposed cutting bus routes throughout Nashville. Thank you so much Nashville for once again cutting an agency that we need more and more as gas prices climb higher and higher.

This must be the way we as a society deals with tough times, by cutting what we actually need. They will also raise fares for the MTA bus system. It will now cost 4.80 for an all day pass, as well as 1.60 for a single ticket. Insanity my dears, Insanity.

They will also cut the following routes completely.

1 Vine Hill
31X Harpeth Valley Express
13 Sylvan Park
37X Tusculum/McMurray Express
16 Madison/Old Hickory
45X Oak Hill Express
30 McFerrin
Night Owl service

-zak

Hope Hope Hope

Yesterday, while eyes were busy watching the returns from Kentucky and Oregon, Tennessee's State Senate was passing a few amendments to the Hope Scholarship program. Now as someone who has yet to benefit from that program due to me not graduating the right year, I am happy to see the TN Senate has made some decent changes to it. First off, your first 2.5 years of college you only need to maintain a 2.75 GPA, under the compromise you would need to raise it to a 3.0 by your junior year.

Now why I find this program to be fair to most students, I think our state would be wise to invest this Lottery money not in scholarships, but directly into the budgets of State Universities and Community Colleges. The reason I say this because tuition rates continue to climb because state schools are not funded! Already this scholarship does not pay the full tuition at any state university in Tennessee, and as each year passes, it may not even pay for the textbooks.

I hope they can find a better way to spend this money, and I do not think that way is by a scholarship program. Love the idea, but honestly, it does not begin to address the real problem of funding that causes tuition to continue to rise.

-Zak