My grandaughter is just finishing up with her pre-law studies at the University of California-Chico. Next year she hopes to go to law school. She has been working at two different jobs while attending school. My own experience indicates she will also have to work while attending law school, which is more expensive than undergraduate school. She is very determined to succeed. Her parents and my wife and I try to help her but none of us are wealthy.
Angry students at the Davis, California, branch of the University of California refused to vacate the school’s administration building Thursday evening in a show of defiance and protest over a 32-percent undergraduate tuition hike instituted by the California Board of Regents earlier in the day. [CNN]
Earlier in the day hundreds of students marched and chanted against the increase while outside the UCLA building in Los Angeles where regents met to vote on the hike.
Protesting students and others say the increased tuition will hurt working and middle-class students who benefit from state-funded education. But officials argue that a fee increase and deep cuts in school spending are necessary because of a persistent budget crisis that has forced reductions across California’s state government.
Students chanted as they marched and waved signs at UCLA. “Education only for the rich,” one sign read.
The first tuition hike, which takes effect in January, will cost undergraduate students an additional $585 a semester. The second hike kicks in next fall, raising tuition another $1,344.
I did hear on CNN this morning that Congress was working on legislation to change the student aid system to permit the government to make direct student loans rather than continuing to let private enterprise businesses make the loans. If they accomplish that change it should be of significant benefit to students. It cuts out the “for profit” loan system now maintained by private loan companies and banks.
I realize that step is likely to prompt more outrage from the Republican Party about socialism. But as far as I am concerned education is as essential as health care reform. The Republican Party’s adoption of the Reagan theory of economics — “the trickle down” theory has not and does not work. Money simply does not trickle down from the wealthy elite to the lower classes. Their “Reagan Theory” was the beginning of shunning regulation of financial institutions which has resulted in our current economic condition, the rampant outsourcing of industrial jobs to foreign countries and the resultant loss of jobs for the lower classes. All this in the corporate quest for profit at the expense of the lower economic classes of people.
Good education for our kids is one of the most important functions of any progressive society. Ordinary families cannot afford the cost of education on their own. They do need help. It is the best investment in the future of this country and the well-being of its citizenry. Every effort should be made to insure that every capable student has the ability earn a high quality education.
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