What bugs me about the NY budget fight is how higher ed keeps getting treated like a line item you can squeeze because students and adjuncts are supposed to just absorb it. SUNY and CUNY aren't side projects. They're how a ton of working class New Yorkers become nurses, teachers, engineers, social workers, and how immigrant families get a foothold here. If Albany can find money for shiny economic development press conferences, it can fund campuses so students aren't sitting on waitlists for required classes and faculty aren't juggling 4 jobs to survive. Community colleges especially get hit first and then everyone acts shocked when local hospitals and schools can't hire. Fund the system before you lecture people about workforce shortages. Not complicated.