"Bang for Buck" tuition re-evaluated

Vincent Girimonte
Union Weekly
Dec 3, 2007

Here’s a fact: CSU tuition has doubled in the past six years. It seems unlikely that a heralded institution like the CSU, often dubbed an affordable system or a “best bang for your buck” type bargain, would have this sort of stat looming over its budget— or the fact that we are a public institution set upon providing Californians with higher education at an affordable rate.

You may or may not know this, however, contingent upon whether or not you’ve bumped into an activist holding a phone, pleading with you to call our governor’s office. The truth remains that November 2008 is still a distant speck on the horizon—perhaps understandably so. It is one year from now. Efforts are underway to change this indifference from students, and to enact a freeze on CSU tuition fees for five years come November. Shockingly, these efforts are being initiated by a normally languid group called college students.

Students and Families for Tuition Relief Now, along with Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi and a coalition of lobbying organizations have put fourth a measure, titled “College Affordability Act of 2008,” which would require a halt to student tuition fees for all CSU and UC campuses over the span of five years, with subsequent tuition raises to be made without exceeding the inflation rate. With California’s perpetual deficit every so often making the news (in a tradition that has become most predictable), the state’s budget is forced to make cuts with many successful programs hitting the chopping block. California’s higher public education has not been unique in this regard. According to the organizations web site, only 11% of state’s general fund is diverted to higher education, as compared to 17% in 1977.

“California’s great public universities are always tempting targets for budget cutters, in part because their boards have been too willing to increase student fees when threatened with lagging state support,” said Garamendi in an opinion piece he wrote for the Los Angeles Times, circa November 15th, 2007.

Many would argue that the United States is dreadfully behind in charging students tuition, even the relatively cheap rates we as CSU students are forced to fork over. Much like our private health care system, there is a global superiority complex when it comes to the higher education and its very un-free nature. If there is trend of privatization in our school system, and as Students and Families for Tuition Relief Now will quickly point out, our state will have begun to sponsor a regressive policy towards education. It was through a public recognition of education’s importance to the nourishment of an economy, and the cultural and societal benefits that spawn from a literate and extensively trained population that our higher education system was conceived; it was intended, as it is intended now, to provide a service.

As it stands now, continuity is being sought through a cooperative campus system, with each CSU and UC ideally boasting a branch set upon getting the proposition on next year’s ballot. A push for signatures is now the main focus for the campaign.

For more information on the cause, Students and Families for Tuition Relief Now have set up a website, tuitionreliefnow.org.