All this is seriously threatened now by a trend in Sacramento toward cutting higher education first… This impending tragedy could be avoided, of course, if attitudes were different in state government. Providing an additional $2 billion to the universities would end all these cuts and restore most classes and student slots. That would cost an average of $52 per year — a dollar a week — per Californian. California voters repeatedly show in local elections they are willing to pay far more than that in parcel taxes, city sales taxes and other levies when they can see the benefits that money will provide. But statewide politicians have never even tried to make a case for higher education. It’s far easier to cut and slash and raise tuition and fees and drive the state’s once-proud university systems into something less than world-class stature, allowing them to contribute even less to the state’s future. So attitudes — and maybe a lot of politicians — need to change if the education component so vital to the California dream is to be revitalized.

Read full article [here].
by Thomas D. Elias, The San Jose Mercury News.

Posted: November 24th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.