Massive Tuition Hikes Passed

"financial aid would cover tuition for students with family incomes of up to $70,000"

This is not the case for transfer students who take more than two years to complete their degrees -- as many of us who need to work while at UC do. In fact, I'd guess that transfer students are much more likely than non-transfer students to need to attend part-time and thus take longer than "expected" to finish. They are the ones who will be stuck with these massive increases and be unable to complete school as a result.

Not like there are jobs waiting for them when they graduate.

The "bring it on" conservative American majority crusades against social programs and hits education....again! 32%! No more war, pavement, hummers, suv's, binge drinking, yachts and regressive tax breaks to the top 2%. The 2% aren't doing anything special on the golf course anyway. Stop aspiring to the black hearted conservative trickle down (if their is any) values.

Ah, the crybabies are at it again. What is so hard to understand? The economy sucks. The CA economy sucks worse. Jobs are being eliminated or leaving the state. Revenue to the state is down (Don, are you reading the CA budget news?). So state spending must be reduced. The UC system is part of the state budget. QED. It's not a conservative thing; its Economics 101, something apparently not taught in CA.

JohnLocke, McDermott has absolutely no clue. Never has, never will. He is part of the someting for nothing, "what's mine is mine, what's yours is negotiable" clan. Don't waste your time tryng wade through the dense fog that is Don's mind. Daniel Petry

That's what I get for typing on the fly...sorry for the spelling. DP

JohnLocke? Not conservative?? Huh! Right!
Education should be a universal right, to give everybody the same chances. If only the rich are allowed to go to collegue, who is going to rule our world tomorrow? Not the most capable, smart, or ambitious. It will be the rich. And if there are a few lazy, incompetent between them, well, what can you do when you don't have any other options?
I volunteered the other day to Santa Barbara 4th and 5th graders. They didn't know the 7 continents. Most of them took more than 10 attempts to locate them right on a map... Think about, only children from parents with money are allowed to good knowledge? Unbelievable!!

@ summersb

Your premise is so far off the mark it is ludicrous. They don't know the 7 continents but they sure do know about the global warming farce. They have a hard time with math but are taught to sing songs of praise to Obama. Get real summersb.

If you want real education allow vouchers, destroy the teachers unions, expand merit pay programs, enhance true educational competition.

And, by the way, you may want to be ruled...I don't. Daniel Petry

How does the song go?

@ moretrailsplease

Ummm Ummm Ummm

summersb: hard for you to understand, I know, but this is not about "only the rich" going to college. It's about a state (CA) so profligate with its enormous tax revenue, and so foolish with one-time windfalls that it digs itself into repeated financial crises. The fact is that one half of all CA income tax is paid by 144,000 "rich people" out of a total population of 38,000,000 Californians. If California took ALL of the income from these $144,000 people, the problem would still not be solved. Those people would simply leave CA as business after business has done while CA continues to increase the cost of doing business in CA. The CA middle class needs to pay more tax or cut their demands for government spending. This is a simple IQ test. Unfortunately, the CA electorate, at least the coastal left wing portion, continues to fail this simple IQ test, preferring to believe in the tooth fairy or whatever. Maybe, just maybe, if you wouldn't insist on looking at everything as liberal vs conservative and instead learn a little math and economics you might begin to understand...

I smell a revolution in the making. When people in mass numbers feel they have nothing to lose, things are not good.

California is further crippling its own economy, today announcing a state cap and trade tax on energy production and consumption. This is while the ClimateGate story is breaking into the MSM, and our state unemployment rate has hit 12.5%. But I'm sure the majority of UC students and faculty believe in global warming and support carbon taxes, while their cars fill the parking lots at UC campuses.

Both Republicans and Democrats have systematically cut UC funding since the 1970s. It was Jerry Brown who said professors should accept the "psychic pay of working in California" in lieu of raises. Richard Polanco in the late 80s (Democrat Assemblyman) was hostile to funding "research" universities, and even introduced a bill mandating that UC must award degrees to students in proportion to representation of their race/ethnicity in the population (not just admit in proportion.) It was a Democrat, Vasconcellos who was the most hostile critic of building UC Merced. Republicans believe higher education is not a proper government function, but Democrats similarly oppose full funding of UC because they don't like the demographics of the students and faculty.

JohnLocke, you just don't get it dude. It's not about economy, it is about having education being a universal rigth. It's about what to save and what to throw away when times are hard. It's called PRIORITIES.
It's about not cutting school programs such as music or PE from a school everytime things get a little tough, like dispensables that were "luxurious programs".
I am sorry, but I come from Europe, and it is very hard for me that this country takes it out of education everytime there are shortcuts.
The education of our children is an investment in our future, not just theirs.
Just how many millions were spent on SB elections? We have money for what we want, not for what we need.
I prefer if my son doesn't have access to a TV or can't go to the cinema, but receives a decent education at school. But I see that's not everybody's priority...

@ revisionist @ JohnLocke

I'm amazed about what you just passed along! I'm fairly new to California, as a semi-resident, and I'm in shock at the mindset that exists in a significant portion of the electorate.

They, like those that are representing them in Sacramento, are like a bunch of suicide bombers. Detached from reality and always whining for others to bail them out of situations that their policies have created.

I think most of you remember what Margaret Thatcher once said, "The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money to spend." California is already there. Daniel Petry

suumersby, you are the one who doesn't get it, DUDE. Do a little reading of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, etc. Nowhere is there a guarantee of a publicly funded education. Not that I disagree with the idea, but the level of entitlement expectation in CA, championed by those who pay least, is truly breathtaking. An education is important, to be sure, especially in a free society. Unfortunately, many people seem to lack an education in the basics of taxation. If people think their money is being ill-spent, as many clearly do, they will not agree do continued taxation, whether or not YOU think they should. California has taken the concept of graduated taxation to an extreme that is now causing its economic downfall. Wake up.

jcrdan,
If there is such a problem with socialism, why are Switzerland, Germany, and Canada (all socialists) in a much better shape than the US?
Also, who said that Thatcher is a model of wisdom? It's like if a guy in England quotes something that GW Bush said as if it is a universal truth...

"If there is such a problem with socialism, why are Switzerland, Germany, and Canada (all socialists) in a much better shape than the US?"

Canada does not hesitate to use its own natural resources including timber and shale oil, despite the environmental platitudes from its politicians. Furthermore, Canada's immigration policy, unlike the U.S. is based on a points system which favors skills and education, rather than blood relations. Finally, mortgage interest is not tax deductible in Canada, and its banks were not forced to make insane zero-down loans. For all these reasons Canada's economy has withstood the global meltdown fairly well.

The top five most prosperous and democratic nations according to the Legatum 2009 Prosperity Index are Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway and Denmark. Unlike the U.S., these countries are highly homogeneous ethnically. Thus, their populations are willing to fund higher levels of health care and education without viewing these expenditures as taking from one ethnicity and giving to another.

In contrast, California's high levels of immigration coupled with multiculturalism as government policy has led to a multi-sided ethnic/racial conflict in which government services are seen as redistribution from one ethnicity to another.

Depends on what you mean by "better shape". Let's see now: Switzerland has made a business of remaining neutral and holding money for the tyrants and villains of the world for decades; Germany was the aggressor in two world wars; Canada is a nice place to visit, but lots colder than SoCal and is the source of what worldchanging inventions besides the Blackberry?

The US is not a socialist country, and despite the Obamahaters fears, will not become one. The country is mildly center right, has been for years, and probably will continue so. Don't let the reality distortion zone that is CA, and specifically SB, blind you.....

@ summersb

I'll cut you some slack for being ignorant. Not un-intelligent...just ignorant.

JohnLocke is right on target...heed what he is trying to tell you.

Our education system is burdened by so many factors that have nothing to do with teaching. From self serving unions that have a strangle hold on change to State and national special interests that are designed to promote the lowest common denominator. All looking to further their political power.

You can't continue to throw money into a system that has no concept of accountability or excellence.

And even though I truly admire, and am in awe of individual teachers and what they sacrifice, our government schools are warehouses...not educational bastions.

There are some really fantastic educational models out there...and some are even European in nature. But all would require changing the current model. The kinds of change that only will come about when the system finally collapses. Daniel Petry

Great commentary, jcrdan. To build on one of your points, my wife was a secondary school teacher until she realized that the moron in the next room, teaching the same lesson plan for the 20th year in a row, was making twice her income due only to union rules. Needless to say, she left teaching for a much more remunerative career in business. Selfish? No. Economic self-interest and an unwillingness to be exploited by union power.

I feel a disturbance in the force.

Indeed. SB Council elections were but a beginning.

Let's try to save our little part of the world by preaching common sense...not party talking points. Damn I so tired of the ignorance. We have become so polarized that nothing will ever get done until we all realize that we are Americans first. I look at these kids and all they want to do is please us and learn...and we have created a system that betrays that trust. Enough! Daniel Petry

I think we need less federal taxes going to protect oil interests. I do not like my federal taxes funding the industrial military complex. I would rather pay more state taxes funding public projects that benefit the many instead of funding programs that harm the many and benefit the few.

Too bad they couldn't take a 32% decrease in the wages, complimentary gifts or however they describe their excessive income from the Regents compensation.

Yea and those excessive pensions and the concept of eternal tenure. Daniel Petry

Hate to break up the libertarian circle jerk but this has got to stop. There are no merits to this new brand of conservatism. Show us, the ignoramuses who see prosperity in the marxo-fascists dictatorships of Western Europe and Scandanavia, at which time in this country's history did we subscribe to your "new" ideals. Surely you don't pretend that the free-market solved all of this countries problems at any point in its history. Surely you understand the demographics of this country have changed immeasurably from the time of the Founders, through the Civil War, the Industrial Revolution and the Great Generation on to today. You discount the gains of socialism as the result of ethnic and cultural homgeneity, war neutrality and financial criminality; HA!. The only resistance to achieving the kind of unity of mind necessary to change is the conservative movement.

Those of you calling for revolution have clearly come to hate the country that exists today. You are nothing but Monday-morning quarterbacks sharpening your pitchforks.

FightWoo, what the heck are you talking about and who are you addressing?

The movement to privatize the public education system has been brewing since Reagan was Governor, and the fact that it has taken them this long to achieve it is a testament to the value that system has to the population it serves. But these cuts will take a long time to recover, and the damage the Regents and the Governors (current and previous), with help from the stranglehold the Republican minority has on the state budget, have done to the entire public educational system will take a long time to fix.

This is an unmitigated educational disaster. Of course, with every disaster comes the privatization crowd, and the usual anti-union, anti-socialist rhetoric (which is BEYOND stupid and only designed to shift the debate) - but the desire to privatize the system has nothing to do with education other than making sure that only certain kinds of people (aka: the "right kind" of people) have access to it. That's not a hidden agenda, by the way. The Republicans have been very open about it for decades.

"Unless we can bring men back to enjoying the daily life which moderns call a dull life, our whole civilisation will be in ruins in about fifteen years. : Unless we can make daybreak and daily bread and the creative secrets of labour interesting in themselves, there will fall on all our civilisation a fatigue which is the one disease from which civilisations do not recover." - G.K. Chesterton

EatTheRich, I didn't see any mention of privatization in this discussion prior to your comment. And, contrary to your statements regarding the anti-union aspects of this problem, there are many people of many political stripes who believe public education is in deep trouble precisely because of the stranglehold the educators' unions have on the political and educational processes. I've responded to your tax the rich rants before, with data that I see you completely ignored. So you apparently continue to believe that you can exclusively tax the "rich" (which I suspect means anyone who has more than you) to solve these problems, then I point to you as part of the problem. Try a little test: assuming that you have income and pay taxes, then add up all you pay in fed and state income tax, property tax, and charitable contributions. This is your contribution to the solution. What percent of your income is it? Compare that to the national averages published by the IRS and see if your money is where your mouth is, or if you are just looking for Other People's Money to solve the problems. And BTW, does your income come from the taxpayer? I'm betting yes. Those who rant in your tone usually depend on the taxpayer for their income and get very angry when the taxpayers won't roll over and just say yes.

@ JohnLocke,

I completely agree that education system has many faults, including unions, etc. I understand your wife's frustration and her decission of changing careers so she could make more money as a bussinesswoman than as a teacher.
However, just because the educational system is broken, doesn't mean we give up and forget about it (as long as we make our money...) It is too important for everybody to let it fail and go down the drain.

summersb, I absolutely agree with you. A free society requires an educated population. I just don't think that throwing money at the problems without attacking root causes is the solution. I'm no expert, but I believe that there are many causes, union control being only one. At the university level we see stories about professors making well over $100K teaching one or two classes - sounds like overpayment to me - unless those professors are also bringing in research dollars to fund part of their income.

It would be interesting to see how much CA spends per student as compared to other states. I've read that it spends much more per student but have seen actual data on the subject. Similarly, one wonders what percentage of the spending goes to "adminstrative" or other non-education functions - again in comparison with other states. CA supposedly ranks way down, if not at the absolute bottom, among the 50 states in quality of education. If in fact it's at the top in spending and the bottom in quality, then there's where to start looking for answers. So far, politics, party idealogies, and the usual name-calling and mud-slinging have prevailed over actual problem solving actions. Figure that one out and you should be governor, or maybe king.

I know, the problems are complex and more than one. Just to give you an example, I see it at the University every day: I know of many graduate and post-doc getting paid for conferences around the world (hotel, air-fare, meals, etc). My friend last year went to Japan, Sweden, South Africa, and a few other conferences in the US. And this is not an isolated case.
On the other hand, I also see undergraduates getting cramped into classes than sometimes can barely afford (if they were lucky enough to get into).
Why don't we get the graduate and post-doc to use video-conferences instead of expensive travelling and offer more support to the undergrads?
Well, the grads are the ones bringing money to the University, get grants from the Feds and private institutions, etc - They are the only ones who haven't even received a paycut (unlike faculty and staff).
The undergrads are the underdogs in the school system, and it keeps going down and down...

One of the best studies I have read was produced by Stanford. The study found that there are a number of areas that need a major overhaul. One is that administrators need, and want, more flexibility to dismiss teachers who weren't effective.

People keep referring to the amount spent for students as being the one of the lowest in the nation. As if, to say, we need to throw more money at the problem. The study found that even if more money were allocated the state's education budget would have to jump to $60 billion in 2004 dollars-significantly more than the $43 billion spent in 2004. Even that would only cover the cost of raising test scores to state-mandated levels in half of California schools.

Another area of high stress is because California has the highest number of illegal aliens consuming school resources..the financial burden is therefore greater.

Their study found that California students will only be able to compete in today's world if the school systems' irrational, complex and restrictive school finance and governance system is overhauled from the bottom up. Totally scraped.

Unfortunately they also believed that the level of political leadership required is not present and special interests - unions - will never allow the changes required to be implemented. Daniel Petry

Very bad and sad news all around. Is there no way to get those in power to actually pay attention? Total change in leadership, maybe, but this state is so gerrymandered that such change seems unlikely. We may be the 8th largest economy in the world now, but we used to be the 6th largest, and I'd bet that we'll continue to drop in that ranking as well - which does not bode well for revenue to provide taxes to fix the problem.

But don't worry, Thomas Elias, the LA Times columnist who will defend California to the death, no matter how disfunctional it becomes, just published an article assuring us that things really aren't that bad. He's also the guy who repeatedly denies the data available from the state government regarding taxation, spending, job loss, unemployment rates, etc. Here's a person in a position to help educate the public on the real issues and he's playing Pollyanna. What a tool...and a fool...

@ JohnLocke

Solutions to these kinds of problems always require a severe paradigm shift. Deep down we all realize that we can't continue to abuse the "maxed out credit card" that is the real revenue generators - tax payers, and the national economy.

In a real sense what we are seeing is a good thing, a great thing. It is the start of a house cleaning. And reality is a real "bitch" of a taskmaster it's relentless and does not give a darn. It seems like we have to go through this every thirty years or so....but that's human nature.

I have unlimited faith in the common sense, and intelligence, of most people. And one thing I'm seeing more and more of is that the tax paying grown ups are finally saying "enough"..."no more". The children will throw temper tantrums, yell, throw themselves down on the floor, and call us names, but they are beginning to understand that the gig is coming to an end.

I mean I don't mind providing assistance for the helpless, but I'll be damned that I will support the clueless.

The education of our children is so important it is paramount in the ultimate survival of a civilization. We still have time. Daniel Petry

@ summersb

Your last post was excellent. Daniel Petry

Post-docs typically don't travel using state tax dollars and the post-docs are one of the few groups that weren't furloughed by the UC Regents. The UCs actually lose money when they furlough staff funded by a grant, because woven into those grants are administrative costs that are dependent on salaries. Since the salaries aren't funded by the UC, they lose money on the administrative costs if they lower the salaries funded by these grants. It's the same with graduate student travel, by the way. Very little, if any, comes from the state.

Professor salaries are one of the few salaries actually determined by the market. If the UC decided to not pay competitive salaries, then they would lose the professors to other schools (as it is, public universities already struggle to retain professors when competing with private institutions), then graduate students, and undergraduates would follow - and you'd lose the value of a UC. This is already starting to happen, as a lot of top notch professors are tired of the constant California budgetary crisis, and can make more money out of state.

Now, if you want to talk about administrator salaries, then you are getting into the meat of the salary inflation - and those salaries are being justified in the same way CEO salaries are justified.

Administrative costs are an excellent point. Anyone (bet not) done any studies of faculty vs admin costs for UC system as compared to other similar-sized universities? If data I've seen for elem and sec schools holds true, the admin costs are overwhelming. BTW, the same argument you proposed for competitive faculty salaries applies to CEOs, CFOs and other admins free to shop their services in the free market. Quesion more to the point may be the ratio of admin to faculty positions.

The time has arrived for UCSB to retire its broadband as a party school. If you want to burn mattresses, destroy private property in Isla Vista, engage in environmental destruction, create Halloween madness, drink to blackout, then you are not adult enough to partake in the privilege, not the right, of higher education. We mean not to be the canquor sore on youthful exuberance, but we also mean to toss out reckless abuse of an opportunity and tax payer's money.

UCSB's administration has wantonly allowed a permissive attitude of frivolity without challenge. Just as the administration has violated Goleta's quality of life by being the 600 pound gorilla by constantly erecting more housing for an already over crowded Isla Vista thus drawing on the imperiled resources of water, police, and other services, so too do they lolly gag along without demanding appropriate behavior from faculty, staff, and students wherein dwells a casual attitude toward aberrant behavior.

If UCSB's administration tried to run a corporation as they do this school, the shareholders would kick them out for mismanagement and purloining assets.

I also respectfully present that the picketers are storming the wrong offices. Rather than blocking the trustee's vehicles, perhaps a few rotten tomatoes tossed on the corporate gangster's windshields whose avarice brought about a world wide crisis would have more effect. Perhaps an overwhelm of emails to those sucking up "contracted" bonuses now apparently paid for by taxpayers money would bring an awareness of consciousness. Settle the aim of protest and anger on those who are the cause and not those reacting to the symptoms.