By turns angry and tearful, hundreds of people testified at the state Capitol on Monday about proposed budget cuts that would fundamentally reshape California’s education system, and not for the better in their opinions… Several speakers supported new taxes to avoid some of the cuts. The suggestions included "progressive taxes" in which those who earn more pay more, and a tax on oil extraction. The governor’s proposed cuts to higher education garnered the largest crowd of the day. Among the proposals are ending Cal Grant scholarships over a four-year period, virtually eliminating state funding for Hastings, a UC law school in San Francisco, and phasing out support of all UC professional schools, including law, business, dentistry, medicine and veterinary medicine, as well as the CSU business schools. Taken as a whole, the changes would seriously diminish California’s reputation for providing world-class public education, critics said.

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by Derek J. Moore, The Santa Rosa Press Democrat.

Posted: June 1st, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Californians need to know that the state kicks in just $3.2 billion of UC’s annual budget of $19 billion. The rest comes from parents, students, foundations and private backers. We think that in the future, given the state’s evidently long-term financial problems, even more of the UC budget is going to come from non-taxpayer sources. We know that, in order to compete with the Scrippses and the Caltechs, the best university managers money can hire need to be sought out. Probably private fundraising efforts, such as are underway separately on almost every UC campus already, should pay for those salaries. But we somehow can’t imagine a legislative putsch as being just the thing the University of California needs right now.

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by The Editors, The San Gabriel Valley Tribune.

Posted: May 30th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

University of California’s president, its chancellors and other top executives will take a 5 percent pay cut as the university prepares a broader response to deep budget reductions imposed by the state. The move, effective July 1, will trim probably less than $1 million from the salaries of about 30 ranking administrators, starting with UC President Mark Yudof, who announced the decision yesterday in an internal letter. But it sends a signal to the balance of the 10-campus system that furloughs, pay cuts and layoffs may be inevitable as the university confronts a $500 million-plus cut in state funding. "Given the magnitude of the budget shortfall, all options need to be considered, and, unfortunately it is likely that every member of the UC community will be affected negatively," Yudof wrote in the letter to the university’s senior management.

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by James P. Sweeney, The San Diego Union Tribune.

Posted: May 30th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

The governor’s total proposed cuts, including those announced Friday, would shave $1.16 billion from California’s university systems from this year’s and next year’s budgets combined… All new Cal Grants would be eliminated and renewals would not cover fee increases, a decision that would affect 200,000 current and incoming college students, most from low-income families

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by Jill Tucker, The San Francisco Chronicle.

Posted: May 30th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger further revised the University of California’s budget, proposing another cutback of $322 million on Wednesday, May 20. This cut, in conjunction with other proposed budget cuts, will cause the budget to be pushed back an astounding $531 million. In a statement released that same day, UC President Mark Yudof described this cut as the "anti stimulus package," referring to President Obama’s bailout plan and the funds from it that are anticipated to be distributed. In order to get out of a financial crisis as difficult as this one, Yudof states that the greatest investment the government can make is in its human capital. "In tough times, great research universities are not luxury items; they are engines for recovery," he wrote. "The innovations developed at institutions like UC lead to new products, new industries and new jobs."

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by Maxine Wally, New University.

Posted: May 26th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

More than a quarter of a million students will be shut out of California’s community colleges because of state budget cuts, college leaders said Wednesday. The failure of statewide ballot propositions Tuesday means the 110-college system will face hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts in the next year. The cutbacks come at a time when the recession and unemployment have greatly increased demand for the two-year schools. The last time per-student funding dropped this low was 1982, said Scott Lay, president of the Community College League of California… The UC and California State University systems also are preparing for steep cuts.

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by Matt Krupnick, The Woodland Daily Democrat.

Posted: May 25th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

The oft-cited waste and abuse is a problem, but the deficit is bigger than the entire state bureaucracy. California could fire every state employee — including well-paid prison guards and university professors — close every government office, stop all travel and even cease the purchase of paper clips without closing the budget gap. The government would be gone but the deficit wouldn’t.

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by Evan Halper, The Los Angeles Times.

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

The long-term effects of Sacramento’s financial woes, meanwhile, could far outweigh the near-term effects. In particular, the expected deep cuts in education spending could thin the state’s human capital, potentially forcing California companies to look elsewhere for skilled workers as well as new plants or even headquarters. It’s the equivalent of "eating the seed corn," said Levy, chief economist at the Center for the Continuing Study of the California Economy in Palo Alto… "When you think about the genesis of Silicon Valley, it really started from its superior educational base" at Stanford and UC Berkeley, said Sedgwick, whose company makes the building blocks for photovoltaic cells. "That indicates that you don’t want to kill the goose that’s laying the golden eggs."

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by Martin Zimmerman, Marc Lifsher and Andrea Chang, The Los Angeles Times.

Posted: May 23rd, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California has proposed phasing out the state’s main student-aid program, a move that would eliminate grants for more than 100,000 students each year and would mark a historic downgrading in the affordability of California’s colleges and universities… Student-aid advocates in California were at a loss for words to describe the potential effect of losing the student-aid program, which was started in 1956. "It’s devastating, it’s stunning, it’s mind-boggling the impact that this would have," said Edie Irons, a spokeswoman for the Institute for College Access & Success. "It’s hundreds of thousands of students that would be affected, and it would just ripple across the state."

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by Josh Keller, The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Posted: May 22nd, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Also potentially on the chopping block is CalGrants, a financial assistance program that offers cash grants to lower- and middle-income college students each year. The governor’s proposal would eliminate the 77,000 new grants awarded each year at a cost of $180 million, but that saving would eventually grow to more than $900 million as students graduated and the program was phased out.

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by Eric Bailey and Patrick McGreevy, The Los Angeles Times.

Posted: May 22nd, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.