University of California officials voted and passed a plan to address the issue of shrinking state funding. The plan will lead to a significant raise in tuition over the next five years if the state doesn’t boost funding.
If there is no state funding, the annual cost of base tuition and fees for a California resident will jump from $12,192 this academic year to an estimated $15,564 in 2019-2020, according to the Sacramento Bee.
We elect officials into office to relieve us of extra stresses in our life, and UC officials are hired to make a student’s academic journey as easy as possible. If UC students have to deal with a price increase, these are the people who need to answer why this happened.
I understand the state budget isn’t in an ideal position, but making the students bail the universities out shouldn’t be the answer.
A lot of students take out thousands of dollars in loans, and many parents save money since their little ones were in diapers to be able to send them to college. It’s not like we’re talking about a small increase either; there are going to be thousands of extra dollars out of students’ and parents’ wallets.
UC officials gave some reasons as to why a tuition increase is necessary.
“The proposal will enable the university to enroll at least 5,000 more Californians over five years and invest in the academic quality that students and their families expect,” Janet Napolitano, UC President, and Bruce D. Varner, Chairman of the Board of Regents said. “Adoption of this new model also will ensure that the university can maintain its current financial aid program.”
Before these universities start worrying about future enrollment, they need to take care of their current students. Also doesn’t raising tuition contradict providing more or maintaining financial assistance?
By raising tuition schools are going to have to provide more money to their financial aid systems or recipients of financial aid will have a higher cost of attendance.
UC and state officials have failed to solve a problem that they knew was going to arise. Now it’s their responsibility to find a way to fix this problem without making students suffer.
Senate leader Kevin de León offered a solution that will benefit California residents.
“California’s university system is one of the premier higher education systems in the world, and we should require that non-resident students pay a premium to attend it,” de León wrote in a message to Napolitano. “The revenue generated from these fees can be used to increase affordability and access for more Californians.”