UC Campuses Dominate Rankings

Sadly, as the state continues to de-fund public education, these rankings are sure to plummet. California's historic investment in its system of public higher education has created a multi-campus, world-class institution. Unless the people and government of California change its budget priorities, we are bound to loose this invaluable resource.

Already the effects of the budget cuts have been devastating. Every UC campus is loosing renowned faculty and seasoned staff. Many classes are no longer being offered and those that are available are over-enrolled. Faculty are teaching more classes, which means they have less time to conduct world-class research. The quality of a UC education is quickly being diminished.

If California wants to retain the worth of this invaluable resource which has taken decades to build, then it needs to re-invest in its future by funding education at significantly higher levels.

It's not "the State" that funds anything; it's the taxpayers. CA has been driving businesses and real (i.e. not taxpayer funded) jobs out of the state for so long that this is the inevitable, albeit unintended, consequence.

Responding to the somewhat tea-baggish previous comment, from New America Media: "stories about businesses relocating to other states are anecdotes, correct in their individual stories, but not a contradiction to the Public Policy Institute quantitative research that out of state relocations are negligible compared to overall job changes in California."
While the cost of living certainly is a factor in the moderate number of people leaving California, taxes play little role in that, and more importantly, manufacturing jobs that support our state are moving overseas more than to other states, and because of labor costs, not taxes. Taxes are the cost of having a 'state', but the proportion of the University budget coming from the state has declined substantially in recent years, leading to the erosion in quality correctly noted in KRichard's comment.

I agree that the state is defunding education, and that taxpayers can only watch for now.

As a student at UCSB, I worry that the high quality education I have enjoyed will not be available to future generations. With more and more of the cost of education coming out of students' pockets, with the yearly slashing of the UC budget, and with the ever plummeting access to services and financial aid that allow so many UC students to attend this school, I am worried that qualified students will be denied the opportunity that I was given. The tuition tax that students face is becoming unmanageable, I will graduate with $50,000 in debt.
Already it feels like a luxury to attend UCSB, despite the fact that the UC charter guaranteed me a place here because I worked hard in high school. The UCs are educating the next generation of doctors, lawyers, writers, scientists, and world leaders, yet we treat them as if they were a special interest. It is in all of our interest to ensure that the UC remains a world class university that continues to serve the Calofornia people.

The author writes that "financial turmoil slowly erodes. . ." There is nothing slow about it. The UC system as we have known it, and as it has served our state so well, is being rapidly and deliberately dismantled by its Regents (the political appointees who are charged with responsibility for its governance) because their priorities have shifted from educating the young people of California to making a profit off of them.

In response to that low-taxer, above: One of the consequences of Prop. 13 was that CORPORATE property taxes were locked in at 1970s pre-boom rates (at least until a different corporation takes over--and when does that happen?). That gives such entities a long-lasting tax shelter. And, no surprise here, their contribution to property tax revenues in the state budget has declined precipitously over the years. So it isn't just the little ol' retiree who benefits from Prop 13. We really need to close that corporate tax loophole. And by the way, raising student fees is just another way of taxing those less able to afford it. Taxing the corporations who benefit from the brainpower of the UCs and their alumni would be a much more progressive way.

The point is precisely that all those rosy rankings were concocted BEFORE this year's budget cuts.

As a UCSB student it is nice to hear that I am attending a school with such high rankings, but with the current budget crisis I agree with the comments above- these rankings are going to fall drastically with the way the budget cuts are affecting the campus.
California's universities are such a valuable resource, it's sad to think what will become of them if the financial situation does not change.

might be important to note that the rankings have very little do with affordability and more to do with the quality of the faculty, class size, equipment, campus, etc. so long as the taxpayers and students pay to keep nobel prize laureates on staff at UCSB, you can bet the rankings will stay high.