[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Dina Cervantes
Chair
California State Student Association

The leadership of the Student Senate for California Community Colleges (SSCCC), California State Student Association (CSSA) and University of California Student Association (UCSA) have come together in a historic coalition, called Students for California’s Future and announced that Monday, April 21, 2008 will be a Day of Action across California with major marches being planned at the State Capitol and downtown Los Angeles.

Over 3.2 million students at the California Community Colleges (CCC), California State University (CSU) and University of California (UC) systems are represented with the unification of these organizations because all would be adversely affected by $1 billion dollars in cuts to higher education.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Peter Schrag

It's no secret that California's community colleges are underfunded and have been for years. But the prime reason isn't inadequate state money, but the lowest fees in the country under a fee policy that costs the system and its students millions in federal grants and loans.

Now, with Proposition 92, the community college lobby wants to cut fees some more, from $20 a unit to $15, meaning a reduction from $600 a year to $450 for a full course load, and change state funding formulas to add yet another Rube Goldberg machine to the convoluted fiscal system already in place.

Net cost to the treasury: about $300 million a year in the years to come, all advertised, of course, as costing taxpayers nothing. Backers of the measure, which is on the February ballot, also claim the fee cut will make community college more accessible.

That's misleading as well, since the fees represent no more than maybe 5 percent of the real cost, which includes living expenses, books, transportation and a variety of other expenses. For students who don't live at home, the fee reduction amounts to roughly 1 percent of the total cost.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

Vow to continue efforts for access and affordability of higher education in California, including Dream Act in 2008

By Oiyan Poon
President
University of California Student Association