Viewing the events surrounding the increased costs of the educational system (in particular the UC and Cal State Universities budget crisis), is not only devastating, but is shameful. Why? Here’s why:

Its effect on the Universities:

According to Mercury News (2009), the state recently reduced CSU funding by $584 million in an attempt to in California’s budgetary crisis. Such a cut will not only reduce library hours and faculty hires, but will also encroach upon the type of academic offerings available to students.

Its effect on University faculty:

Faculty, already teaching on modest salaries, will either be laid off or coerced to leave. Remaining faculty will then be left with the responsibility of teaching students on failing technology and decreasing tools/resources.

Its effect on students:

Student class size is expected to increase by 10-20% next year, while faculty and staff is expected to decline by 10% over the next five years. With that, the freshmen enrollment campus target class for the 2009 fiscal year has been predicted to drop as many as 500 students. (New York Times, 2009).

Remaining students will experience course reductions, increased class sizes and longer expected graduation dates. California Faculty Association President Lillian Taiz stated, “The loss, in the end, would not only be dollars, but the loss of the hope and optimism about the future that is an intrinsic trait of a society committed to broad educational opportunity." (Associated Press, 2009).

In addition, students will see tuition fees rise, leaving students with no other alternative than to fund their school with loans. David Sanchez, president of the California Teachers Association responds to such occurrences by stating, “What a way to commence the Year of Education, by proposing to balance the budget on the backs of the students in the state of California” (Associated Press, 2009).

Thoughts: I agree with Cal State Long Beach’s geography department head, Vincent J. Del Casino Jr.’s statement that, “We’re facing more than simply modifying [our] approach to education; we’re looking at the potential wholesale abandonment of the master plan, California’s commitment to providing a college education to all its young people who qualify” (LA Times, 2009).

With the economic crisis, I personally know many who have turned to pursuing higher educations as a means of waiting out the recession; however it turns out that the universities, which are seen to many as a safe place to turn, are now not a safe haven at all. Instead, it appears that they are experiencing the impacts of the recession the most. It’s hard to believe that California’s education, the backbone of our great state, has been left to its own demise. I believe we are literally watching the fall of what makes our nation great – it’s people. The emerging generation of new intellectuals, doctors, business entrepreneurs, scientists, artists, etc…without education, what are we left with??

Related Articles

 CSU proposes 20 percent fee hike, Mercury News (2009)

 University of California Makes Cuts After Reduction in State Financing, New York Times (2009)

 Calif. educators reeling by Schwarzenegger’s proposed cuts, Associated Press (2009)

 California college crunch, LA Times (2009)