Mike McPhate
Students on campus at the University of California, Los Angeles. David McNew/Getty Images
Good morning.
Since the lofty idealism of the 1960s, the goal of
making college affordable for all Californians has been in dogged decline.
Tuition at both the University of California and
California State systems has tripled over the last 15
years. And now, leaders of both institutions are pondering another
increase.
The result, according to a new survey, is that many Californians no longer see a path into
public higher education.
The study by the Public Policy Institute of California
found that 85 percent of Californians surveyed now think that tuition costs at
the state’s public colleges and universities present a problem.
“It’s not about
quality,” said Mark Baldassare, the president of the nonprofit research group. “It’s
about affordability.”
To critics, the worries are more evidence of a
betrayal of mission enshrined in California’s higher education system: that any
resident who worked hard enough would be guaranteed a first-rate university
education.
At the moment, the University
of California’s undergraduate tuition
and fees are roughly $13,500 a year, well above the national average for
public universities. At Cal State, about $6,900.
A University of California
spokesman, Ricardo Vazquez, noted that the Public Policy Institute survey
showed that a wide majority of Californians judged the quality of instruction
at the state’s public colleges and universities favorably.
But, he added in a statement,
“The findings also show that Californians are aware and concerned, as is U.C.,
that public higher education in the state is severely underfunded.”
According to the
University of California, the system relied on state funding for nearly
a quarter of its budget as recently as 2002. That figure is now about 10
percent, after more than $1 billion in cuts.
Still, representatives of both
Cal State and the University of California said that the tuition of a majority
of their students was fully covered by financial aid.
The costs of transportation,
textbooks and housing, however, are another matter.
University students have
reported struggles with soaring housing costs in the areas surrounding many of
the campuses, in places like Irvine, Santa Barbara and Berkeley. In July, a survey found that one in five
University of California students sometimes went hungry.
A study this year by the
Institute for College Access and Success, a nonprofit advocacy group, found
that even after subtracting aid, low-income students in both the Cal State and
University of California systems had to come up with as much as $13,000 a year.
“And by low income, I mean
with a family income that’s under $30,000,” said Debbie Cochrane, vice
president at the organization. “So, that is a
hefty price tag.”
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