I was disappointed to read Friday’s editorial (“A tuition hike’s the best of the bad options”). Is the editorial board now simply rubber stamping Zach Calef’s hard-line, anti-tax material?

The notion that raising taxes automatically leads to stunted economic growth is patently false. That rhetoric ignores complex issues such as the impact of various taxes on economic behavior. One has only to look at Iowa’s current sluggish economy following on the heels of $3 billion in special-interest tax cuts over the last five years (cutting 16% of state revenue) to demonstrate the complex link between taxes and growth.

Furthermore, the idea that state taxes substantially influence state economic activity has very little to support it in the first place. If anything, states with higher taxes tend to have higher growth, thanks in part to improved state services and economic infrastructure.

In other words, restructuring the state tax code to raise revenue, improve tax fairness and support education more fully would be an investment in Iowa’s future with a real payoff. An educated, skilled workforce is a business incentive. All Iowa taxpayers benefit from this, not just those who get the degrees.

Finally, it’s just foolish to claim “it is only fair that those attending college be the ones to pay for attending college.” This is nothing more than an expression of class warfare. One does not get ahead today without a college education. How are people to improve themselves if only the wealthiest Iowans can afford pay to send their children to college, yet everyone else must either forgo a college education or be saddled with truly massive debt? How is this “fair”?

Ever-larger tuition increases are not the solution to Iowa’s educational budget woes, nor are they fair. They are a prescription for economic problems for decades to come.

Jonathan Williams

Graduate Student

Electrical Engineering