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.

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.