The effect of this will be to undermine the entire concept of public education. Private colleges are not raising tuition as fast, and their students use much more federally funded loan aid than UC students.
State institutions will stagger. For poor students, access is reduced, while for middle class students, private schools may become the norm (non-profit and for-profit). For now, this will save some state money, but it will greatly increase the federal burden, greatly inflate total student loan debt, and greatly reduce the investment in California's economy -- which will reduce future tax earnings.
This disinvestment is not only inequitable, it is financially stupid. Penny wise pound foolish.
_________________________________
By Steve Lopez
March 14, 2012
My daughter attends elementary school in Los Angeles Unified, which has just sent out 11,700 layoff notices in the latest round of miserable news.
...
I was in the Bay Area recently and caught this headline in the Contra Costa Times:
"Believe it: Harvard cheaper than Cal State."
Well, certainly not if you go by the sticker prices for tuition, room and board. But on Harvard's website, there's a calculator that says a family of four with a $130,000 annual income could qualify for as much as a $39,750 scholarship for the undergrad program. So instead of $56,750 for freshman tuition, room and board at Harvard, the bill would come to $17,000.
...
Class sizes have gone from 25 to 50 in some cases, Bradford said, to help manage costs. And many students have been forced to hang on an extra year or two, while managing jobs and families, as they wait for classes to open up.
"It's really painful to have students who know what they want to do, and we can't help them," Bradford said.
...
You cannot fix any of this in a state more inclined to build prisons than schools, despite projections of a huge shortage of college-educated workers by 2025. You can't fix it when you're the only major oil-producing state with no excise tax, and you refuse to correct the huge property tax advantage Proposition 13 extended to corporations. You can't fix it without modest concessions from public employees, including teachers, on pensions and benefits.
...
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0314-lopez-edcuts-20120314,0,1137047.column
State institutions will stagger. For poor students, access is reduced, while for middle class students, private schools may become the norm (non-profit and for-profit). For now, this will save some state money, but it will greatly increase the federal burden, greatly inflate total student loan debt, and greatly reduce the investment in California's economy -- which will reduce future tax earnings.
This disinvestment is not only inequitable, it is financially stupid. Penny wise pound foolish.
_________________________________
By Steve Lopez
March 14, 2012
My daughter attends elementary school in Los Angeles Unified, which has just sent out 11,700 layoff notices in the latest round of miserable news.
...
I was in the Bay Area recently and caught this headline in the Contra Costa Times:
"Believe it: Harvard cheaper than Cal State."
Well, certainly not if you go by the sticker prices for tuition, room and board. But on Harvard's website, there's a calculator that says a family of four with a $130,000 annual income could qualify for as much as a $39,750 scholarship for the undergrad program. So instead of $56,750 for freshman tuition, room and board at Harvard, the bill would come to $17,000.
...
Class sizes have gone from 25 to 50 in some cases, Bradford said, to help manage costs. And many students have been forced to hang on an extra year or two, while managing jobs and families, as they wait for classes to open up.
"It's really painful to have students who know what they want to do, and we can't help them," Bradford said.
...
You cannot fix any of this in a state more inclined to build prisons than schools, despite projections of a huge shortage of college-educated workers by 2025. You can't fix it when you're the only major oil-producing state with no excise tax, and you refuse to correct the huge property tax advantage Proposition 13 extended to corporations. You can't fix it without modest concessions from public employees, including teachers, on pensions and benefits.
...
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0314-lopez-edcuts-20120314,0,1137047.column
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