RENO (AP) - Nevada college students want to know where political office seekers stand when it comes to supporting higher education, and are asking them to sign pledges not to cut funding.
The Nevada Education Protection Pledge was mailed to state office seekers Thursday, said Casey Stiteler, director of the newly formed legislative affairs branch of Associated Students of University of Nevada.
Modeled after the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, it seeks a candidate's promise to "oppose and vote against any and all efforts to decrease funding to higher education" that would damage the integrity of Nevada's higher education system or limit access to students.
"The main goal of the pledge is to initiate a direct dialogue between students and legislators," Stiteler said.
He said students need to know lawmakers are listening, and legislators need to know "students will not stand idly by as decisions about the future of our state are being made."
During a special session in February to deal with a state budget crisis, lawmakers cut $50 million, or about 7 percent, from the Nevada System of Higher Education.
The state is facing a projected $3 billion shortfall for the next two-year budget cycle that begins July 1, 2011.
Stiteler said the pledge is supported by the Graduate Student Association at the University of Nevada, Reno, undergraduate student government at the University of Nevada, Western Nevada College, Great Basin College, College of Southern Nevada and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.