Though other colleges are not specifically studied, because of the number of campuses in the vast CSU, it’s no stretch to reckon that what caused expenses to rise there are the same forces causing spending increases elsewhere. No, knockers of the professors who toil in the halls of academe, it’s not high academic salaries that are driving the increase. Mostly, it’s a massive increase in hiring and spending on middle managers in nonacademic departments. And, no, mom, pop and junior, students and parents are by no means left off the hook. For decades, they have pushed for plusher dorms, better dining halls and programs that make the university experience a better one, from Title IX equality for women to health care to separate departments aimed at keeping students from dropping out. All of that costs money.

Read full article [here].
by The Editorial Board, The Los Angeles Daily News.

Posted: June 16th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

The offer is limited to high school graduates from the Newport-Mesa, Huntington Beach and Garden Grove districts on a first-come basis, with a $300,000 commitment for each of the next three years by the Coastline Community College Foundation, a nonprofit that supports the college. For the average student, the offer translates to $1,500 in tuition and fees, and up to $1,000 more to cover textbooks during the first year, Coastline officials said., along with additional counseling and support. The aid, under the Coastline College Promise, is available to those from all economic backgrounds… in return for the financial help, students must perform a minimum of 20 hours of community service.

Read full article [here].
by Roxana Kopetman, The Press-Enterprise.

Posted: June 15th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Assembly Democrats had proposed new scholarships—which would supplement existing aid programs—that would offset the cost of room and board, textbooks and other living expenses that tend to be bigger drivers of college costs than tuition. The fully implemented plan would cost $1.6 billion per year; legislators had suggested phasing in the program over five years, with an initial cost of $320 million. The budget doesn’t put any money toward such grants. Instead, it directs the California Student Aid Commission to consider how to consolidate existing scholarships in ways that would lower students’ overall college costs, including non-tuition expenses such as housing and transportation.

Read full article [here].
by Tribune News Service, The San Francisco Examiner.

Posted: June 15th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

There is no end in sight to the bureaucratic mess in which California students who attended predatory for-profit colleges find themselves entangled. This week, the U.S. Education Department will announce it plans to halt and rewrite rules the Obama administration had created to hold the colleges accountable and help students who were defrauded by schools like Corinthian Colleges get rid of the student loans they took out to pay for what turned out, in many cases, to be a dismal education. The announcement is the latest blow for students across the country who were reeled in by fraudulent for-profit schools promising opportunities and good jobs but rarely delivering.

Read full article [here].
by Emily DeRuy, The East Bay Times.

Posted: June 15th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Taxpayers in Visalia, Farmersville, Exeter, Woodlake and surrounding communities will save $5,445,412 from refinancing $18,271,140 from portions of the Measure I general obligation bond, approved by voters in 2008. The interest rates on the refinanced bonds, Series A and Series C, were reduced from 5.39 percent to 2.84 percent and 5.84 percent to 3.42 percent, respectively. Taxpayers in Tulare, Lindsay, Corcoran and surrounding communities will save $3,334,246 from refinancing $14,205,000 of Measure J general obligation bonds, approved by voters in 2008. The interest rate on the new bonds was reduced from 5.40 percent to 2.86 percent. Hanford taxpayers will save $3,491,207 from refinancing $13,540,000 of Measure C general obligation bonds, approved by voters in 2006. The interest rate on the new bonds was reduced from 5 percent to 2.78 percent.

Read full article [here].
by Calley Cederlof, The Visalia Times-Delta.

Posted: June 15th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

The Trump administration is formally reconsidering — and may dismantle — two new rules that were a cornerstone of the Obama administration’s crackdown on predatory for-profit colleges. The announcement by the Education Department on Wednesday freezes changes that would speed up and expand a system for erasing the federal loan debt of student borrowers who were cheated by colleges that acted fraudulently. It also throws into limbo what is known as the gainful employment mandate, which cuts off loans to colleges if their graduates do not earn enough money to pay off their student debt. Fraud, especially fraud committed by a school, is simply unacceptable,” Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said in a statement. “Unfortunately, last year’s rule-making effort missed an opportunity to get it right.”

Read full article [here].
by Stacy Cowley and Patricia Cohen, The New York Times.

Posted: June 14th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders announced a budget deal Tuesday that strips University of California President Janet Napolitano’s office of some of its financial autonomy, limits the authority of the embattled Board of Equalization, increases tax credits for the poor and saves the Middle Class Scholarship program at public universities. The budget deal includes a plan for spending money from new tobacco taxes approved under Proposition 56 in November. That revenue would go toward increasing payments by up to $325 million for doctors and up to $140 million for dentists who see Medi-Cal patients. “This budget keeps California on a sound fiscal path and continues to support struggling families and make investments in our schools,” Brown said in a statement.

Read full article [here].
by Melody Gutierrez, SFGate.

Posted: June 13th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

For the first time in decades, no one from the San Joaquin Valley is serving on the University of California’s 26-seat governing board – perpetuating local concerns that some of the state’s neediest areas are not well-represented. None of the 18 governor-appointed members on the UC Board of Regents are Valley residents, with most based in the greater Los Angeles area. The other regents are ex officio members, which include the governor himself and the state superintendent of schools, plus a student representative. Assemblyman Dr. Joaquin Arambula, D-Fresno, said the problem extends beyond the UC board. “I continue to be disappointed by the lack of Central Valley representation on state boards and commissions, including the UC Regents,” Arambula said in an email.

Read full article [here].
by Mackenzie Mays, Modesto Bee.

Posted: June 13th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Under a state budget deal unveiled Tuesday, CSU will soon have to offer those applicants a slot somewhere at one of its 23 campuses statewide. The policy, which CSU must develop and approve by next May, is based on a guarantee at the University of California: All California high schoolers who rank in the top 9 percent of graduates statewide, or finish among the top 9 percent of the graduating class at certain high schools, are eligible to attend UC; if they are not admitted to the campus of their choice, UC offers those students a spot at another campus where there is space, which in recent years has been only Merced.

Read full article [here].
by Alexei Koseff, Modesto Bee.

Posted: June 13th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

The regents board for the University of California has “full powers of organization and governance” over California’s most prized public university system. Yet the board, which consists of 26 members, has recently been in the spotlight for its lack of transparency and a string of controversial decisions. Now it turns out that even the process by which the regents themselves are chosen has a tremendous transparency problem. According to California’s Constitution, Gov. Jerry Brown “shall consult an advisory committee” of 12 people in “the selection of the regents.” That advisory committee consists of six members of the public, two elected officials from the Legislature, a UC student, a faculty member, an alumnus and the regents chair. But it seems the governor isn’t following this provision of the state Constitution.

Read full article [here].
by Staff, San Francisco Chronicle.

Posted: June 12th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.