University California proposal eliminate tuition pay 5% of income 20 yrs

[Ichingcarpenter]

It's not every day that University of California students tell UC President Mark Yudof to abolish tuition - and he says he'll consider it.

SNIP........



The students' proposal fits right in. Instead of paying tuition - currently at $12,192, not including mandatory fees, room, board or books - the "UC Student Investment Proposal" would require that students commit to paying 5 percent of their annual income for 20 years after graduating.

"Under this plan, no undergraduate student would have to worry about paying for their UC education while they are in school," Chris LoCascio, president of Fix UC - the group of UC Riverside students that developed the idea - said in a presentation to the regents.

The students calculate that, under the most conservative estimates, UC could triple its revenue over the next two decades to $4.6 billion. The plan would be phased in over several years, and students say UC would begin receiving more income from graduates than from tuition by year seven.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/18/BAF11MR30P.DTL#ixzz1jvjuaITR

[mike_c]

1. while I applaud the creative thinking behind this idea...

...I remain committed to the notion that education is a public good and should be provided free as a public service. When I began working in the California State University 15 years ago, taxpayers paid approximately 80 percent of the cost of attendance at a CSU-- I understand that number is now down below 60 percent, and projected to reach 40 percent in a few years.

I think that's wrong. California became the economic engine that it was-- and still is, at something like the seventh or eighth most robust economy in the world-- under an education master plan that made college nearly 100 percent subsidized by the legislature, at least in the CSU. Free public education WORKS. It isn't a pipe dream-- many of the same legislators who are dismantling the CSU and the UC today received their own educations for pennies on the dollar 20-30 years ago at a CSU campus.

[elleng]

2. Fine if it works.

Good luck to them actually COLLECTING.