California's Higher Education Worth Fighting For- And We Will

Sometimes I think there are two Californias out there. One of them is the California of small things and small thinking. It's the California that is obsessed with petty anti-tax politics. The one that wants to gut social programs and dismantle our public higher education system. It thrives on driving wedges between us and promoting divisiveness.

It's the California of Proposition 187 (cutting services to illegal immigrants), Nixon, Reagan and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. It includes a lot of people who hate government but are the first to complain when the garbage isn't picked up.

The other California is the California of bold ideas and dreams of a better future. It's theCalifornia that wants to conserve and protect its unique and beautiful state parks and wilderness, wishes to invest in its people and seeks common ground amid diversity.

It's the California of Proposition 215 (legalizing medical marijuana), John Muir, Cesar Chavez and Harvey Milk. It's the California that recognizes the vital role that our public colleges and universities play in laying the foundation for the state's future.

Sadly, the clear winner in recent years has been the California of small things and small ideas. Through an outdated flaw in the structure of governance, one-third of the Legislature has a stranglehold on the state's finances. The other two-thirds (the majority) knows the state is heading in the wrong direction. Yet given its lack of control over the purse strings, it's left flailing around passing a lot of symbolic laws that go nowhere.

There's no better illustration of the failure of our political "leaders" in Sacramento than the fact that they have left the state's college students and their families, along with California State University and University of California faculty and staff members, no choice but to organize to fight against them. Thursday, there will be large demonstrations at every campus of the CSU and UC systems, as well as regional rallies in cities up and down the state (including the Capitol building). They will send the clear message to our elected representatives that the budgetary onslaught against our public universities must end now.

In the Legislature, a narrow band of anti-tax zealots has launched a frontal assault on California'ssystem of higher education. It's happening at exactly the time when people across the state who have been thrown out of work are seeking to attend college to learn new skills to help them prepare for new jobs. They're incapable of seeing that investing in public colleges could also give the state's battered economy a much-needed stimulus. For every dollar invested in a CSU or UC, there's about $4 of economic activity generated in the local community.

Like the GI Bill that helped 2.3 million students between 1945 and 1950, California's 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education served the state's social, economic, and cultural advancement by creating a highly skilled work force and a generation of innovative young entrepreneurs. So successful were California's public colleges that other states and countries looked to our Master Plan as a model for their own public college systems.

But in recent years the system has suffered the same "starve the beast" mentality that has been leveled at government. In 1966, the state provided $15 for every one dollar in student fees. Today it is only $1.40 for every dollar in student fees. Our elected representatives in Sacramento believe that California's higher education system is worth only 40 cents? Even Gov. Ronald Reagan increased the budget for higher education.

As we "celebrate" the 50th anniversary of California's Master Plan, the recent increases in student fees have forced thousands of students to either scale down their educational ambitions or pile on the units and work multiple jobs. The so-called generous offer of Schwarzenegger to increase funding for the CSU would only restore about half of what's been cut from its budget since 2007.

The colossal failure of our elected "leaders" to deal humanely with the state's finances cancels out the efforts by well-meaning legislators who might be trying to do the right thing. As a result, there is deservedly zero respect for the Assembly, the Senate and the governor. We're told that in a $1.8 trillion economy we face a "structural deficit" that requires us to demolish public institutions that took a generation to build.

The assault on the goals of the Master Plan is not going to stop after the election this November and it's not going to stop by passing another proposition. At this point we have no choice but to become the loudly squeaking wheel until the politicians get the message.

It's time to remind the governor and the Legislature that the direction they're leading the state is deeply unpopular, undemocratic and wrong.

Joseph Palermo, CSU-Sacramento
 Official Website :  www.californiansfordemocracy.com  and the Volunteer website www.ca4democracy.com  

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Joseph A. Palermo is an associate professor of history at California State University, Sacramento.

Funding California education

Joint Legislative Committee on the Master Plan . Dec.7,2009.

Education basics:

Since  1990, the legislature and the state funding have failed to adequately fund k-12 education.  For evidence, see the Williams case.   The legislature and the governor have failed.

The just published paper by PPIC notes that 40% of the  California jobs will require a college education by 2020.  We are not preparing these future professionals.

Since 1990 the legislature and the governor have failed to fund higher education. The legislature failed –even before the current economic crisis.

Since the economic crisis of 2008/2009,  the economic crisis of k-12 education and higher education has accelerated.  This crisis was created by finance capital and banking, ie. Chase Banks, Bank of America, and others.   Finance capital produced a $16 trillion bailout of the financial industry, the doubling of America’s unemployment rate and the loss of 2 million manufacturing jobs in 2008.
See Capitalism: A Love Story below.

Students are  now required to  pay a 30% tuition increase, over 100% increase in 5 years. It is more difficult to get a job.   A secure job.  In this crisis  vastly more wealth has been destroyed than in a normal  recession.  We are all paying for this larceny.

If you go down the street and rob a 7/11 store, you will get 5-7 years in prison.

The major bankers, finance capitalists in the U.S. just robbed the bank – and the federal treasury.  They took hundreds of billions of dollars.     Goldman Sachs alone took $10 Billion.  For this, for example,  Ken Lewis of Bank of America received an 81 million dollar pension.

A radical improvement of both k -12  and higher education is required to have a positive economic future for the state. At present California is not producing the educated professionals needed to make the state professional.  Last year the state spent more money on prisons than on higher education.

The basic problem is lack of public investment.  California is in danger of losing quality human capital. The economic future is at stake.

In the 60’s and the 70’s California investment in k-12 and higher education.  Since 2000 , this investment has been abandoned (even before the economic crisis).  Quality higher education is currently being destroyed.   California is funding its schools at a level similar to Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi. The consequences will be an economy like Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.  These are some of the consequences of the economic crisis and  the actions of the legislature and the administration.
See post on Water Bonds.

Duane Campbell
Professor (Emeritus)
CSU-Sacramento

California Legislative Report Card

Report Card

2009.
Funding for California k-12 public education.

Senator Pro Tem. Darrell Steinberg.
Democratic Legislators D.

Republican Legislators F.

Governor Schwarzenegger F.

Funding for California Higher Education

Democratic Legislators D.

Republican Legislators F.

Governor Schwarzenegger F.

The costs of higher education in California

Investing In California Higher Education Benefits All Californians

By Alberto Torrico
Assembly Majority Leader

Republicans just don’t get it. The rest of us understand that the worst national recession in our lifetime demands a shared sacrifice. But the right wing Republicans continue to fight for big corporations enjoying record profits.

Take archconservative George Runner. He actually suggested on the conservative blog Flash Report that asking oil companies to pay for tapping a California resource would empower Hugo Chavez. That’s ridiculous, but it’s typical of the GOP’s blind allegiance to big business.

It’s time to move beyond such meaningless rhetoric. That’s why I’ve introduced AB 656 to raise much-needed funds for the UC, CSU and California Community College systems through an oil severance tax. We are the only oil-producing state in the nation not to levy this tax. Conservative strongholds like Texas, Alaska and Louisiana, plus 18 other states generate revenue for vital services to their residents. In California, we put the burden on working families.

California’s Republican Governor thinks it is a good idea to close down our state’s oldest public law school, turn away over 20,000 high school seniors from our college campuses, and to eliminate Cal Grants, the funds that allowed me, and countless other Californians, to become the first in our families to attend college.

That’s after 7 years of fee increases, including this year’s that will force University of California undergraduates to shell out an additional $662 and California State University students $306. California’s long-time promise of an affordable higher education is jeopardized by declining state support. are raising concerns that access to affordable higher education is in jeopardy because of declining state support.

AB 656 will empower hundreds of thousands of students by keeping college affordable and making sure they have timely access to courses they need to graduate. Instead of working two jobs and taking years to get their degrees because of reduced course offerings, students would join the workforce more quickly.

AB 656 will reinvigorate our economy by ensuring that a steady stream of well-trained and educated workers keeps flowing into our key industries, our classrooms and our health-care facilities. A recent Public Policy Institute of California study found that if current trends continue, California will face a shortfall of one million college graduates by 2025. That would devastate our economy and the thousands of companies that rely on these institutions to supply skilled workers.
Posted from the California Progress Report.