A new study released this week says that California can offer tuition-free college to its residents, and for half of taxpayers the cost would be $48 or less per year. “The $48 Fix: Reclaiming California’s Master Plan for higher education,” was released on Tuesday, touted by its authors and by the California Faculty Association as a way to get the state’s college system back on track… The study’s reference to the Master Plan, refers to the 1960 blueprint adopted when Gov. Pat Brown, the current governor’s father, was in the statehouse. It established a program for community colleges, Cal State universities and the UC schools, that provided access to students based on their standing after high school graduation. There was to be no cost for tuition.
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by Mark Muckenfuss, The Press Enterprise.
Posted: January 27th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
At its Thursday meeting, the UC Board of Regents preliminarily approved its first systemwide tuition increase since 2011 as a part of a new operating budget plan for the 2017-18 academic year. Tuition will increase by $282, and the Student Services Fee will increase by $54 — for a total increase of $336. Undergraduate nonresident supplemental tuition will increase by $1,332. Additionally, the new budget plan includes enrollment-growth funding for an additional 2,500 California undergraduates and 900 graduate students… Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom said he opposed the decision to adjust student tuition to cover costs rather than soliciting the funding from the state. “By doing the legislature and the governor’s work, by finding the revenue, we’ve let them off the hook,” Newsom said at the meeting.
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by Harini Shyamsundar, The Daily Californian.
Posted: January 26th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
It costs only about $7.3 billion, according to the 2015-2016 state budget, to operate the best and greatest public university in the history of humanity, the University of California (UC). In the grand scheme of California’s $2.5 trillion economy, that is a relatively small price tag. It costs an additional $5.6 billion and $9.2 billion to operate the California State University (CSU) and California Community Colleges (CCC), respectively, for a grand total of $22 billion… if we allocate $5.4 billion more to higher education, tuition will be eliminated for all at every public school in the State of California… How do we afford $5.4 billion? We tweak an antiquated law in the California Constitution that keeps property taxes capped at one percent and allocated entirely towards local government and K-14; you may know it as Proposition 13. A small increase of one-quarter of a percent, 0.25 percent, will raise approximately $15 billion above the $60 billion already raised.
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by Jonathan Abboud, The Santa Barbara Independent.
Posted: January 26th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Senators’ offices have been flooded with thousands of calls and letters opposing the nomination of Betsy DeVos — with some Democratic offices saying the opposition to DeVos is stronger than for any other Cabinet nominee… DeVos is a GOP mega-donor and education advocate who has long been a top target for Democrats. But her shaky performance during her confirmation hearing last week, in which she appeared to be confused about federal special education law and referenced a Wyoming school with grizzly bears when discussing gun policy, appears to have emboldened her critics… Still, DeVos maintains a high level of support among Republicans, and she’s expected to be confirmed by the Senate.
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by Kimberly Hefling, Politico.
Posted: January 26th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Today, when many policy preferences are often divided along party lines, there is partisan consensus on this issue: at least 70% of Californians across parties say they would be unwilling to increase student fees to fund higher education. Indeed, less than a third of Californians across all regions and demographic groups say they would be willing to increase student fees. At the same time, a majority of Californians (67%) believe that the current level of state funding for public colleges and universities is inadequate. So what are Californians willing to do to increase funding for public higher education? Overall, they are twice as likely to say they are willing to pay higher taxes as to say they are willing to increase student fees (48% to 23%).
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by Lunna Lopes, PPIC.
Posted: January 26th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
California has continued to decrease the budget for higher education across all three higher education sections; the community colleges, CSUs and UCs. The privatization of education, which is the shift of making higher education a societal obligation to one that is funded by students, their families or private funding, has negatively impacted the education outcomes of California students, according to the report… “The $48 fix paper being released today helps chart a path forward, a solution if you will, for our students and for California,” Eagan said.
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by Josselyne Rivas, The Sundial.
Posted: January 25th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
One report, from the Reclaim California Higher Education Coalition, argues for restoring per-student state funding to 2000 levels after adjusting for inflation, for offering all students seats and for eliminating tuition in order to return California to the original spirit of its vaunted Master Plan for Higher Education. Such moves would only cost the median California household $48 per year in additional state income tax, it says… The other report, from College Futures Foundation, says California should change the way it funds its public university systems and makes financial decisions about them. The report notably calls for reform in revenue stability and predictability…
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by Rick Seltzer, Inside Higher Ed.
Posted: January 25th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
The state Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) projects modest growth at California’s two sprawling public university systems over the next seven years and says that UC and CSU won’t need to build new campuses… education officials say those predictions may be undercounting, particularly since Latinos’ high school graduation and college attendance rates appear to be climbing fast. Declines in California high school graduates and college enrollments “have been projected for a long time and haven’t emerged yet,” said Todd Greenspan, the UC system’s director of academic planning. So, he added, “that’s where our skepticism comes in.”
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by Larry Gordon, EdSource.
Posted: January 25th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
David McCleary, a UC Berkeley alumnus and the president of UAW Local 2865 — the union that represents 16,000 UC student workers — attended the panel Tuesday in support of the Reclaim CA Higher Education Coalition’s efforts. McCleary said he sees public higher education as essential to the economy of the state and added that he believes the coalition’s plan for tuition-free campuses is comprehensive and feasible. “(Education) is a public good, paid for with public tax dollars of all the constituents of California, and it needs to reflect those constituencies,” McCleary said.
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by Harini Shyamsundar, The Daily Californian.
Posted: January 25th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Napolitano told regents that the 10-campus system responded to deep state funding cuts during the Great Recession by saving more than $320 million through more efficient energy use, reforms in procurement practices and other changes. Despite such efforts, she said, campuses are struggling with higher student-faculty ratios, fewer courses, fewer teaching assistants and overtaxed student services. “We have done more with less, but at a cost,” she said. The regents will vote on the proposal Thursday… UC has enrolled about 7,400 more California undergraduates since 2015-16 — the largest increase in 70 years — and plans to add 2,500 more this fall. One consequence of the swelling enrollment has been a rise in the student-to-faculty ratio from the historical level of about 18 to 1 to the current 21 to 1, UC officials said.
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by Teresa Watanabe, The Los Angeles Times.
Posted: January 25th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
