Ourview
Fees
unfairly targets students
We rally and we complain but we don’t really
vote. Gov. Gray Davis knows this, so he
has chosen to take the easy road and cut
funding for the Cal State University system
in a desperate attempt to reverse our $36
billion budget deficit.
The CSU board of trustees took action in
Dec. 2002 to significantly increase student
fees. If the proposed tax increase is approved,
which it will be, students fees will have
been raised 152 percent since the 1990 to
1991 school year and students will be paying
a total of $1,185 more in mandatory fees.
Davis’ January budget proposal called for
a $260.7 million reduction to the CSU budget.
Republicans are proposing an additional
$200 million more in cuts to the system
to help smooth out the crisis that our legislators
have created.
Do they really want us to go to school?
Why are students being targeted so heavily?
Students cannot afford to pay such ridiculous
fees for a public education. Those of us
who receive financial aid can expect a monthly
bill for the next 50 years as a reward for
all of our hard work.
BeachPride.com, a student-run Web site that
promotes spirit, events and activities for
students at CSULB reports that “In 2001
to 2002, approximately 62 percent of all
undergraduates who received financial aid
took out a student loan, the amount of the
average loan was $4,841. Of the 49 percent
of CSU students who received financial aid,
46,031 of them were dependents of families
whose total income was less then $36,000
per year.”
This fee increase will serve one purpose
— it will further perpetuate the disparity
between an educated upper class and an uneducated
working class. Families with money will
be unaffected by the increase. The 46,031
students whose families take in less than
$36,000 annually will be severely affected.
Not only will they be forced to struggle
during the “poor college student” experience,
but they will have to spend years of their
lives after college paying off the thousands
of dollars they borrowed to pay for their
education. California has one of the highest
unemployment rates in the nation right now.
Poorer students will have to spend the difficult
time after graduation looking for a job
while, at the same time, finding a means
to pay back the government for something
that should have been an inherent right.
Eighty percent of CSU students work and
pay taxes, with 36 percent of them working
full-time. We pay our share, and so do our
families. We are being unfairly targeted
because of our low voter turnout rate and
because the board of trustees cannot fathom
taking any pay cuts.
A group is currently attempting to pass
bill AB 550, which would require a committee
to be formed to approve, deny or negotiate
any upcoming proposed fee increased for
students. The committee would be composed
of students, teachers and administrators
— people who actually have a stake in the
outcome of fee increase proposals.
We must protect the future of California
and its residents. Education cannot be taken
for granted. An educated society will be
more progressive and would be more likely
to avoid incurring a $36 billion budget
deficit. It just makes it easier for them
to screw us over when we don’t know what’s
going on.
We can voice our opposition by logging onto
BeachPride.com and e-mailing Gov. Gray Davis
and our so-called representatives. We should
not remain passive in our actions while
we complain when writing the check for $285
more than we had to last semester.
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