DN Editorial: Where's Tom?
LAST WEEK, addressing a meeting of state college trustees, Gov. Corbett suggested that colleges and universities could fix that hole he blasted into their budgets when he cut higher-education funding in half by turning some of their land over to gas drilling.
LAST WEEK, addressing a meeting of state college trustees, Gov. Corbett suggested that colleges and universities could fix that hole he blasted into their budgets when he cut higher-education funding in half by turning some of their land over to gas drilling.
Sure, and while we're at it, why not convert university student centers to slots parlors? Or let developers build shopping malls on all those college football fields that get used only a few times a year? And we don't need to stop at extracting revenue from our campuses; imagine the revenue possibilities from cheap labor provided by students. All those call centers and assembly lines now operated by underpaid East Asians could just as easily be operated by Pennsylvania college students for academic credit instead of cash, bringing a gold mine to the universities.
Corbett's jaw-dropping suggestion is not only flawed, but seriously offensive, when you remember the gas-drilling industry contributed at least a million dollars to his campaign.
We thought Corbett got elected governor, not celebrity spokesman for the gas industry. But he's sure acting like a pitchman, promoting the expansion of drilling (and tax-free profits for his friends) far and wide, and disregarding the impact on communities and the environment.
It makes us wonder: Where in the world is Tom Corbett?
We mean the Tom Corbett who, as attorney general, brought down 22 legislators in the Bonusgate scandal, busted child predators and stood up for senior citizens. That Tom Corbett was the highest-ranking law-enforcement guy in the state. He wore a white hat.
If someone sees that guy, send him back to Harrisburg.