Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposes shifting California money from prisons to UCs and CSUs
Posted January 7th, 2010. Categorized under California, News. 5 Comments
Ever since the recent surge of costs for public education in California, there have been precious few signs of relief. Even the protests have died down a lot, and as the new semester/quarter begins, students are being hit with record-high student costs. Many have begun to accept that this is just the way things will have to be.
However, during the protests, one common argument that I heard a lot was that California spends more money on prisons than on higher education. Currently, California spends about 10% of its general fund on prisons and about 6% on the UCs and CSUs.
Luckily, Governor Schwarzenegger announced a proposal that could fix a lot of this: Limit the percentage going towards prisons to a maximum 7%, and set a minimum funding of 10% for the UCs and CSUs.
This shift in funding would begin in 2011-2012 and finish in 2014-2015.
Will this pass?
The first step to this becoming a reality is a legislature vote — 2/3rds of the legislature would have to approve this in order for it to show up on the ballot next fall. Once it’s on the ballot, a majority vote will make it law.
However, California’s legislature is notorious for getting absolutely nothing done. A 2/3rds vote is pretty tough to come by, and so many bills that could and should be passed are turned down. My hopes aren’t too high for the legislature to approve this, but we’ll see.
As for the general public, I believe this proposal would stand a good chance. I think most citizens would agree that more benefit to society can come from better funding to higher education than to prisons, though I’m sure many would question if and how the prison system would manage the cut in funding.
Is this the right solution?
Disregarding California’s current abysmal budget situation, I think this is definitely a step forward. It guarantees the UC/CSU systems a significant amount of money, and helps to secure higher education in the state.
My biggest problem with Schwarzenegger’s proposal is that it allows the UC President (Mark Yudof), UC Regents, and Chancellors an easy way out. Although state funding has caused a lot of the UC’s financial problems, those who run the UC are also to blame for quite a bit of this — raising student costs excessively, prioritizing construction, massive administrative salaries, and all-around forgetting the purpose of public higher education.
Of course, these administrative figures are all in support of this proposal, as it would probably get them off the hook.
What I’d be interested to know is, should this proposal become law further down the road, will the UC system’s student fees drop?
I doubt it.
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1. Ron from File Taxes Online Free
January 7th, 2010 3:44 pm
I doubt the school would lower the tuition fees, but they would have more in their budget to do other things. The money would show up on paper, but I seriously doubt the students as a whole will benefit. I bet the administration will get a small raise though!
I do agree with Arnold though, putting more into prisons than into Education is bad, shows how our society is disintegrating.
Colleges and Universities ceased being only a ‘learning institution’ a looong time ago. They are first and foremost a business with their hand in the government’s honey pot. When the honey pot gets low they take from the students.