Romney has said, "I really believe that the failure of our urban schools and, in some cases our suburban schools, to help minority students achieve the levels that are necessary for success in the workplace is the civil rights issue of our time." Romney has also advocated for a nationwide focus on education to close the "excellence gap with the rest of the world". As governor, Romney proposed mandatory parental preparation courses. He also supported English immersion classes for students that cannot speak English and opposed bilingual education. During his 2002 campaign, Romney had said he backed age-appropriate, comprehensive sex education in public schools. In 2005, against the will of the state legislature, he introduced federally funded abstinence-only education programs developed by a subsidiary of a Christian anti-abortion organization into some public schools. Romney said that adoption of the programs would be voluntary for individual school districts and that the programs would supplement rather than replace existing comprehensive sex education curricula. Opponents argued that funding pressure would lead to schools dropping comprehensive sex education programs for the freely available abstinence-only ones, which under federal law were required to teach that any sexual activity outside of marriage is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects, and which were prohibited from discussing the potential benefits of contraception. During Romney's tenure as governor, Massachusetts' per capita funding for public higher education decreased from $158 to $137, and in national rank, per capita state expenditures changed from 48th to 47th. In July 2005, Romney proposed $200 million in funding for University of Massachusetts capital projects. The governor's capital budget included $50 million earmarked to repair the crumbling parking garage and foundation of the UMass Boston campus. The Massachusetts legislature declined to vote on the bond bill needed to fund the projects. Romney also vetoed a retroactive pay raise for unionized employees of state and community colleges. Romney voiced his opposition to retroactive pay increases for public employees although the raises had previously been agreed to then vetoed by his predecessor. Romney successfully pressured William Bulger to resign as President of the University of Massachusetts (UMass) on September 1, 2003. Bulger said that his resignation was the result of "a calculated political assault" on him, largely by the governor. William Bulger came under pressure from Romney and others to resign after he invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to testify when he was subpoenaed