Here it is:
First and foremost, the protests are about privileged kids demanding subsidies from working people. The UC system will continue to be heavily subsidized by taxpayers, and the students who attend are among the most naturally gifted, with the highest future earning potential, in the country. This is especially true at the system’s flagship schools of Berkeley and UCLA, where the protests have been most intense. Narcissism and self-absorption are the norm on college campuses, but it really is pushing the limits to throw such a tantrum at the idea that you will be getting a smaller amount of free money taken out of the paychecks of strapped taxpayers, most of whom could never dream of the advantages and opportunities you enjoy.
Via Insty, who suggests that you should “read the whole thing.” You should; it’s short.
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A lot of my kids are first-generation college students whose parents are really struggling to pay for college, with or without dorms…. These kids may have high income potential for the future, but right now their parents are taking out second mortgages to put them through college. And student loans still have to be paid back, with interest. I left grad school in 98 and still haven’t finished paying back my loans!
Raising fees so rapidly will hurt a lot of families and will pull some kids out of a 4-year college.
The state of California has reduced its contribution to the UC system by about 40% over the past 12 years. We’ve muddled through, economized, and still provided a damn fine education for a lot of kids who will, as you say, go on to contribute gainfully to California and the country. I’d like to keep doing so, but layoffs and admissions reductions both threaten the project of public education in California.
Longitudinal studies have shown that every dollar spent on education yields a seven-fold return in the form of fewer repeated courses, less remedial tutoring, and higher incomes and taxes paid later….
California’s economic backbone over the past several decades has been its commitment to public education, including the UC system as well as the Cal States and the CCs. We’ve built an educated middle class, class by class. Raising fees now will not boost our long-term fiscal health.