According to Glantz, the RCHE proposal will eliminate all tuition fees and make college free, while returning state funding and restoring the seats for students who they say were “pushed out of the system.” The California Faculty Association president, Jennifer Eagan, highlighted the story of SF State student, Danny Alvarez, whose mother was afflicted with cancer. Alvarez is studying oncology, hoping to give back to low-income communities with his education. Eagan and others at the meeting in Berkeley agreed “The $48 Fix” could make college free.

Read full article [here].
by Jason Rejali, The Golden Gate Xpress.

Posted: February 3rd, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

President Trump has asked Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. to lead a panel on reform of higher education regulations… “There’s too much intrusion into the operation of universities and colleges. I’ve got a whole list of concerns. It mainly has to do with deregulation.” … only 38 percent of Liberty borrowers manage to pay down as little as one dollar on their student loan principal within three years of leaving school. What’s more, 41 percent of former Liberty students earn less than $25,000 annually six years after enrolling. This is critical information students and parents deserve to know about Liberty and hundreds of other colleges and universities.

Read full article [here].
by Jeffrey J. Selingo, The Washington Post.

Posted: February 2nd, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Milo Yiannopoulos, a professional provocateur, provoked not only protesters who shut down his speech at UC Berkeley but also President Trump, who suggested Thursday that federal funds be withheld from the campus as a result… UC Berkeley officials declined to comment on the president’s tweet, but spokesman Dan Mogulof said federal funding “provides financial aid to low-income students and supports basic research that supports the greater good, California’s economy and the national economy.” … “I find it deeply troubling that the president of the United States has threatened the funding of a public university to hold it accountable for the actions of outside agitators,” said Ralph Washington, president of the UC Student Association, adding that most of the protesters were students “exercising their right to free assembly.”

Posted: February 2nd, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

The presumption by many proponents of Proposition 13 reform is that it would revert the comparative allocation of state and local spending to how it was before. Thus, state funds would be freed up to better provide for budgetary line items such as the University of California. In fact, this is one reason why so many local governments are in support of such an endeavor. In California, the state pays a larger share of local government costs than other states. Why? Proposition 13’s passage reduced property tax revenue, which previously funded local governments and their school districts in a sustainable manner. Instead of funding its tripartite higher education model, the state offset its deficit by allocating billions of dollars to local governments instead of public higher education.

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by Nathan Glovinsky, The Daily Bruin.

Posted: February 2nd, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

California could help students get through college without debt — but at a hefty potential cost of $3.3 billion annually, a new state report says. The report by the state Legislative Analyst’s Office laid out different ways the state could help students at the University of California, California State University and California Community Colleges cover both tuition and living expenses. The analysis comes as concern rises over spiraling student debt, which has topped $1 trillion nationwide. Worries over college costs also have deepened among some families since UC regents approved a tuition increase last week and Gov. Jerry Brown proposed phasing out the state’s Middle Class Scholarship program for new students beginning this fall.

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by Teresa Watanabe, The Los Angeles Times.

Posted: February 1st, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Two moderate Republican senators plan to vote against education secretary nominee Betsy DeVos — the first Republican defections that seriously endanger confirmation of one of President Trump’s Cabinet nominees. Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Susan Collins (R-ME) both said on the Senate floor Wednesday that they ultimately would vote against DeVos… This level of opposition is unprecedented for education secretary nominees, who usually sail through the Senate confirmation process with little pushback. But DeVos, a billionaire Republican donor with scant experience with traditional public schools, has sparked an overwhelming response from activists, who have flooded the Senate switchboard with calls and showed up to protests in at least three cities over the weekend.

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by Libby Nelson, Vox.

Posted: February 1st, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

The idea was to have a public discussion about the way the university is envisioning their future,” said Michael Burawoy, event organizer and Berkeley Faculty Association co-chair. “That is, of course, particularly pertinent when the federal government shows no interest in public education.” … Newfield advocated for a return to free tuition for all in-state students. Total undergraduate tuition would cost the state 300 million dollars a year — less than 10 percent of total tuition revenue, according to Newfield… Christ argued that free tuition is an unrealistic goal to strive for within the current California tax structure and that the conversation should instead revolve around the proportion of those who can and cannot pay tuition.

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by Audrey McNamara, The Daily Californian.

Posted: February 1st, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

In 1960, lawmakers created the Master Plan for Higher Education, which was originally committed to free tuition for all Californians pursuing education in California’s community colleges, the 23-campus California State University system, and the 10-campus University of California. Highly successful in building a system with the best public universities in the world, the plan quickly became a key component of the state-funded infrastructure that has made California the sixth largest economy in the world. Beginning around 2000, this public model increasingly shifted to one in which higher education has been viewed as a commodity. State funds have been slashed and replaced with billions in student debt as tuition and other fees have risen dramatically. The “reset” proposal described in the paper would restore state per-student funding to the three-segment public higher education system to the level it received in 2000-2001 while ending tuition and mandatory fees.

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by The Council of UC Faculty Associations, San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center.

Posted: January 31st, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

A Senate panel on Tuesday narrowly voted in favor of President Trump’s nominee for education secretary, Betsy DeVos, sending her nomination to the full Senate for final approval. All 12 Republicans on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions voted in favor of sending her nomination to the Senate floor, while all 11 Democrats voted against… Two Republicans, Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), made clear that they have not yet decided how they will vote on the floor, suggesting that DeVos’s confirmation is not yet assured… Alexander decided to hold Tuesday’s vote over objections from Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the committee’s ranking Democrat, who sought a delay to ask more questions of DeVos.

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by Emma Brown and Moriah Balingit, The Washington Post.

Posted: January 31st, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

For researchers like them, who attend many international scientific conferences a year, restrictions on travel will take a heavy toll on crucial collaborations with other scientists from around the world, not to mention their personal lives. The online petition they launched on Friday (https://notoimmigrationban.com/), where their peers in academia can voice their opposition to the ban, now has more than 7,000 names, including 40 Nobel laureates. It calls the executive order discriminatory and unduly burdensome for the people affected — but it also describes how much it will hurt “American leadership in higher education and research.”

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by Julia Belluz, Vox.

Posted: January 30th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.