Proposed ballot measure would freeze student fees

Ginger Staley
The Pioneer
Nov 29, 2007

A potential freeze on student tuition could be the result of a new proposition by Students and Families for Tuition Relief Now, a non-profit organization supported by the Greenlining Institute. If the attorney general approves the language of the measure and enough signatures are collected, the proposition will appear on the November 2008 ballot.

This first-ever student-led ballot initiative seeks to: - Freeze tuition where it is currently at for the next five years for undergraduate students. - Prohibit tuition from rising faster than the inflation rate. - Place a one percent income tax on Californian’s who make over one million dollars in order to fund the CSU and UC systems. - Obligate CSU and UC administrators to deliver yearly reports to a citizens’ panel about how that money is being spent.

In the last six years, tuition has doubled. The Public Policy Institute of California has found that 84 percent of California residents feel that college affordability is a serious problem.

“The poorest people in the state are being taken advantage of,” said Chris Vaeth, the organizations campaign director who has been trying to raise awareness about the issue all across the state.

We see tuition as something the state can control,” said Vaeth.

Sometime around the holidays, Students and Families for Tuition Relief Now will receive their official title and summary for their proposition. From then, they have until April 17 to collect 434,000 signatures in order to get the proposition on the November ballot.

The organization’s interactive website will allow people to sign the petition online if they miss the opportunity to do so in person.

For more information go to www.tuitionreliefnow.org.