California Committing Educational Suicide

[marmar]

via truthdig:



California Committing Educational Suicide
Posted on May 12, 2012


A Public Policy Institute of California report shows that amid soaring tuition costs and diminishing state government support for higher education, large numbers of students are surrendering the quest for a four-year degree because they simply can’t afford it.

Researchers reported that among all high school graduates, enrollment in California state universities has plunged by about one-fifth since 2007. —ARK

Kevin Drum at Mother Jones:

According to the PPIC report, state support for higher education over the past two decades has plummeted by a third and tuition charges have skyrocketed to make up the difference. When I attended CSU-Long Beach in the late ’70s, it cost me a little over $100 per semester in tuition and fees. Adjusted for inflation that’s about $300 in today’s dollars. But that’s not what today’s students pay. They pay about $3,000 per semester. UC students pay about $6,000 per semester. The cost of a state university education has skyrocketed 10 times in California.

… So what’s happening to these students? Are they going elsewhere? A few are. PPIC reports no increase in enrollments at private California universities and only a small increase in enrollments at community colleges (which have their own budget problems) and out-of-state universities. Their conclusion: “It appears that sizable numbers of high school graduates in California are increasingly less likely to enroll in any four-year college and that a small but notable share of those who were eligible and even accepted into UC and CSU do not attend college anywhere.”

Read more

http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/california_commits_educational_suicide_20120512/?ln

[xchrom]

1. du rec. nt

[Egalitarian Thug]

2. Cali has been vigorously pursuing suicide on multiple fronts for half a century.

It's as if they believe that allowing their state to remain paradise will cause some horrible retribution to be showered down on them, and so have set about making it happen with all the industry of a pack of meth-fueled beavers on a week long bender.

K&R

[Sirveri]

4. We did elect Reagan governor to start the tear down...

And Prop 13 so as to starve the government...

[Johonny]

6. 2/3 majority to change tax code

is killing the state. Oddly it is highly supported by older Californians around me. These people generally got their state school education when there was massive support for California schools. Cheap college supported by taxes was good enough for them, but not current generations. Go figure.

[dana_b]

9. yeah - I don't understand that at all

I have heard that "no free ride" excuse used by older people that I know and I am completely puzzled by their selfishness. Those that did go to school got it free or paid very low tuition. Hell, even when I went in the 80s it wasn't free but I remember it being only like $400 a semester (Cal State Northridge). $3000 a semester is a huge increase compared to the comparative wage increase (or lack of it).

I know many can't stand the thought of a tax increase either now that they got theirs and they have low property taxes. ugh!!

[Egalitarian Thug]

11. I think it's because they don't understand the real reason for its creation.

I know so many people there that think it's all about grand mama's property tax bill, without any realization that the Big Winners from prop13 are the big commercial and agricultural land holders. Grand mama is going to die and the taxes on that property then go up, but corporations never die and never pay a dollar more to support the state that makes them possible than they did in 1979.

[Sirveri]

13. tax rates are transferable when the estate transfers (provided they keep the property).

It's not about rates, it's about starving the state of money.

[Egalitarian Thug]

15. That as well, but as we both know, the family commonly does not hold

onto the property in perpetuity. As with everything, it is about dollars.

[Sirveri]

12. yep, people wonder why I'm so pissed at the boomers.

Probably be a lot less pissed off if their generation didn't keep pissing on me. Speaking of which now I need to go pay my mothers property taxes again...

[coalition_unwilling]

14. Um, tear down began in 1934 when Repig Frank Merriam defeated Upton Sinclair and

the EPIC (End Poverty in California) movement, thanks to red baiting by such storied media vehicles as The Los Angeles Times

[AsahinaKimi]

3. I believe I was one of these..

Went three years and had to drop out.. couldn't afford the tuition costs, materals, ect. Was planning on going back but still can't afford it. May take up a private school for language eventually.. but right now..I am making barely enough to get though the month.. with all the necessities. My parents offered to help, but I said no... My dad didn't have his parents helping him, nor my mom. If I was going to go to College it was on my dime, and no loans either.

[Sirveri]

5. Don't be stuck up, take your parents money.

Your parents want to help and have the cash, take it and finish your education, the sooner you get it over and done with the better. The longer you wait the more likely it will be that it simply will never happen. I'm lucky, I managed to get back into school after only a decade of waiting. We're a social species, working together is supposed to be what we do, so when people offer to help, take the offer and then help them out when the time comes around, that's what family is for. Suffering in silence doesn't build character, you have character if you have the strength to ask for help when you need it.

[jeff47]

7. Take your parent's money.

Your mom and dad went to school in a different era where doing it without help was possible.

Get your degree. That gets you a better job. That lets you pay back your parents. Then you will have done it on your dime.

You are doing significant damage to the rest of your life.

[raccoon]

8. Brian Wilson's California...is no more. nt

[cr8tvlde]

10. Two Words ... Proposition 13

And then the property values began to skyrocket, the property tax was minimal on current ownership then they started dying. New property or inherited property was calculated 1.25% on any new sale ... say $700 a month plus on an "average" house or $1500 on a fancy house, there was lots and lots of money, especially after Reagan finished fileting social programs.

Also, public servants couldn't afford the cost of living. So wages had to go up...way up. It's also when the public service unions came into being, firing a public servant became almost impossible, and as much as I'm a union person, what was negotiated 30 years ago for lifetime with no caps is not fiscally possible now. Six figure pensions and full healthcare are are common, people are healthier, often working a second career with pension, plus Social Security and the cost of housing has fallen 40% or more.

Glad I'm not young and glad I'm not Jerry Brown. For the first time in decades, perhaps a century, there is an emigration from California for places that are cheaper to provide a living and the ability to get a higher education.

[FarCenter]

16. California became rich on gold, lumber, oil, fishing, irrigation, and defense spending

gold: gone
lumber: largely gone
oil: largely gone, except offshore
fishing: depleted
irrigation: going with climate change
defense spending: unaffordable