In the year 1960 I was growing up in San Mateo, California; the Promised Land. Everyone was migrating to California. We were the Golden State with the California sunshine, never a rainy day and we were setting all of the standards for our nation. The jobs were all moving here; in California, like nowhere else the car was king and our educational system was the envy of the world.
My granddaughter will soon be starting school here in the San Francisco Bay Area, in a system that seems to be working diligently to set the standard for everything that can go wrong with an education system. This past week we plunged further to the depths as both of the California State University systems once again hiked tuitions. This in addition to cuts in classes, enrollment, staff and services. What a deal we have for you; we want you to pay more and get less.
In the year 1960 a resident student wishing to go to The University of California did not have to pay tuition. Yes, you read that right but just in case that didn’t sink in, let me repeat; in 1960 a resident student DID NOT have to pay tuition to go to The University of California. The university charged a registration fee of 120 dollars and a miscellaneous campus fee of 27 dollars for the grand total of 147 dollars. Today that might cover a Chem. textbook and a highlighter. In 1972, when I graduated from high school an actual tuition had been put in place, insisted upon by then Governor Ronald Reagan (here is where I bite my tongue and keep my comments to myself). In that year tuition and fees amounted to 640 dollars. That was a pretty decent deal when compared with the thousands my parents were preparing to shell out for my Santa Clara University education.
In 1993 about the year today’s incoming freshmen were born, UC tuition and fees totaled 3727 dollars. When those same children were entering high school the total damage was 6852 dollars. About this time, parents who were diligently trying to save money for their child’s college education were probably finding the ever increasing gradient to be daunting. This fall, UC tuition plus something called a mandatory campus fee will total 13,218 dollars. The increase that was approved last week represents a 9.6 percent increase. This is on top of an 8 percent increase that was enacted in November 2010, for the 2011 fall semester. Since 1960 tuition has increased over 9500 percent. Middle class parents have seen the college bill double in the four years since their children started high school. The price increase of college has been in overdrive while the middle class wage has been stuck in neutral for a lot longer than four years. The added financial kick in the groin to these middle class families is that they make too much money to qualify for financial aid.
The cause for this spike is of course the state budget crisis which has not only necessitated the fee hikes but has also forced a number of service cuts. To close the financial gaps, UC has been forced to lay off faculty and staff and to cut back on classes. So to add a monetary upper cut to that groin shot, the cuts in class offerings has created a situation in which the student is forced to stay in school longer. We all know the old jokes about kids who become “professional students” because they either waffle on declaring a major or keep changing in mid-stream. The system, with all of its cuts is now busy creating “professional students” all by itself because it can’t offer enough classes to allow students to graduate in four years.
I discussed this with my daughter in law who just last year received her nursing degree. She told me of fellow students trying to get into the impacted nursing program and having to stay in school longer because required classes were closed. Other students give up on their dreams and change majors and yet others simply leave school. Ever wonder why, when you go to the hospital you find that the nurse who is caring for you graduated from a school in another country? During a recent, short hospital stay I was under the care of three Filipina nurses and one who hailed from China (For the record, I had no issue with the care that I received.). We can’t fill nursing spots with home grown nurses because we have decided not to educate them. What the hell, we import everything else from Asia, why not nurses.
In the wake of the tuition hikes former Assemblyman and UC Regent Bill Bagley called this just what it is; a parent tax. He also rightfully accused the State Legislature of abdicating its responsibility. The Republican wing of the State Legislature has consistently blocked efforts to raise taxes in order to balance the budget. In a disingenuous statement Republican leader Connie Conway said, "Republicans listened to the voters and stayed true to the only special interest we represent - California's taxpayers.” In fact Republicans in The California Legislature not only did not listen to voters, they took the very ballot out of the hands of the electorate. When Governor Jerry Brown proposed putting a measure on the ballot to allow voters to approve or deny the extension of some expiring taxes, the Republicans in the Legislature defeated the proposal. The GOP has been consistently thumping its collective chest for blocking taxes and forcing an austerity budget. The truth of the matter is they’ve simply handed the problem off to others. To Bagley’s point, with a decline in state funds, agencies and local governments are now forced to increase fees which simply amount to de facto taxation. But allow me to offer a descriptive, if not disgusting analogy. Let’s suppose that I go about thumping my chest over how clean I keep my backyard. Let’s further suppose that I have a big dog who deposits big steamers in that backyard and I handle that problem by taking a shovel and tossing them over the fence into the neighbor’s yard. Behold! I have a clean yard and my neighbor got a crappy deal. Kind of like how the legislature abdicated; and students and their families got dumped on….To be continued.
The amount that student costs have increased since I finished grad school at SJSU in 2000 is staggering. As it stands, students who may want to take a semester, trimester, or year off in the middle of their college time take a chance that it could cost them more once they've graduated.
ReplyDeleteAnother kick in the financial groin is that students under 24 must have their parents' income counted into the financial aid computation. Marvelous, at 23 you can join the military and legally drink but you're still treated as a minor when it comes to financial aid.
Your experience with the nursing staff who attended you in hospital is typical. In my case last week, there was actually one shift where the RN and aide were both Americans. The other shifts were staffed by Filipinas.
Those who oppose tax increases don't understand basic economics. Costs increase and so prices increase. If revenue doesn't also increase, buying power is less. Those same people who think raising taxes is the end of the universe should (but won't) have their incomes frozen. Then they might understand that their rigid opposition to tax increases isn't workable in the real world.
Others might say that we take in enough revenue but waste too much of it. The second part of that is certainly true. Holding out against tax increases and calling for better government spending won't fix the problem. Voting against those representatives that are seen as being part of wasteful spending is about the best we can do.