In so-called “March in March” protests, thousands of students in California universities recently demonstrated in outrage over spiraling tuition costs.
At both the California State University and University of California multi-campus systems, tuition hikes in recent years have far exceeded the national average. Meanwhile, universities slash classes, cut key research, and rely even more on exploited and poorly paid part-time lecturers and graduate-student teaching assistants.
Yet against whom, exactly, are these cash-strapped students demonstrating? After all, their college faculties are unionized, largely liberal and sympathetic to their plight.
Campus administrators likewise want more state money for universities. But, unlike the beleaguered faculty, their numbers by some calculations have increased 221 percent between 1975 and 2008. At CSU, there may be one administrator for every full-time faculty member. Why, then, were not the students calling for their administrators to return to the classroom, and thereby provide additional classes at reduced cost?
Do the students fault the governor and the legislature for unwise spending priorities that have led to funding cuts and tuition hikes? Not really. Gov. Jerry Brown is a liberal Democrat. Both the state senate and assembly are also overwhelmingly Democratic — and have been for years. In fact, state officials largely spoke in favor of the student protests.
Are the students instead angry at the state’s public employees, who on average make more and are better pensioned than their counterparts in other states? Or do protestors connect the state’s escalating costs that divert money from universities with California’s massive number of illegal aliens — whether in terms of the soaring costs of social services, billions of dollars sent as remittances to Mexico, or the incarceration costs of 30,000 Mexican nationals in the state prison system?
Does state money allotted to other discretionary areas, from things like preliminary funding for envisioned high-speed rail to restoring salmon in the state rivers, come at the expense of students?
The cash-strapped protestors would probably not think so. Instead, they seem to believe that the causes of all their troubles are the proverbial “rich” who are not “paying their fair share.”
Rest of article
Money quote:
The blame for the UC and State School tuitions increases in California is clearly on the Teachers Unions and the Democrats who run the state. Tuition has gone up 70% since my daughters started college in 2009. California can no longer afford to provide free education to illegals to buy Democrat votes. This is not only in our colleges but in our High Schools, our Medical Care, and our law enforcement as well. It’s past time to recognize the $10 billion dollar burrito in the state and say enough already. Arizona is trying but of course 0-bama-Holder-and the Democrats just can’t do what needs to be done. Pathetic!!
Who’s to Blame For California?
Californians.
Spending,borrowing,confiscatory taxation. Grade two math.
“Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.” – Bastiat
The full essay (worth reading) from which that quote is drawn shows that the California situation is new only in its specifics: http://bastiat.org/en/government.html
People have been using college loans to pay for clothes, rent, food and techno-toys above and beyond tuition and books for a long time now.
Higher education is over-hyped and over-valued, unless you want to prep for a technical/engineering/medical career.
And, if you do go for one of these majors a job is very likely waiting for you.
Obama has been all over the map on student loans and college education.
Early on he wanted EVERYONE to get at least two more years of school after high school.
Later he ran the idea of grads working for 10 years in gov’t public service to erase their loans…..but this makes whatever they learned in college 10 years obsolete!
Right now Obama has placed the gov’t behind all college loans.
Over 14% of all these college loans are in arrears.
Now what does Obama propose in an election year?
Forgiveness of college loans!
The idea that he might forgive college loans has already shot up the amount owed on them.
Only a fool would make payments, right?
(Occupiers?)
We have already seen that Obama has no idea how economics works.
His US Census hiring bubble didn’t fix unemployment.
His ”cars 4 cash” bubble didn’t fix auto sales, either.
His 99 plus weeks of unemployment benefits only made matters worse for longer.
His plan to help underwater mortgage holders is more of a bank bailout than a homeowner one.
California is only the canary in the coalmine.
@Nan G:
Maybe there are too many Californian’s blinded by the weather out there to think rationally on why California is having such problems.
I was going to add another “Larry says it isn’t true….so there’s that.”
But I think I’d rather say something else. Here in the great State of Georgia, we have had a lot of people move in from Yankee Land. I have absolutely no problem with people trying to improve their lives by moving to a State that more fits their ideals, even though I am really not a fan of Yankees. But if you are going to move to a more conservative site to get away from the liberal hell you created, and vote in a manner that seeks to turn my State into the one you left……pick another State.
If liberalism is so good, why are all the liberals leaving the crappy States they created? Georgia is considering a law like they have in New Hampshire. They are going to increase the time required to establish residency just because of the liberal Yankees trying to change our State.
Aqua, that is a sign of pathological denial of reality I harp on (and IMHO mental illness). They aren’t capable of seeing their beliefs were the cause, and to feed their narcissistic love of self, they insist on doing the same thing over and over because they are trying to convince themselves they are right.
Because they cannot face reality, they are doomed to a particular kind of hell. Unfortunately, they insist on dragging us into it as well.