tuition

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Student Regent Asks Why Students Weren’t Consulted About Online Education (and no one quite answers)

Byuclafaculty

At the Jan. 16 session of the UC Regents dealing with online education, student regent Jonathan Stein asked why UC students were not consulted.  Various regents spoke in response.  Notably, Gov. Brown responded with the admonition to “get real” about the budget, but he did not address why students were not consulted.  In addition, UC-Berkeley Law Dean Christopher Edley – who has been active in UC online efforts – was asked to respond.  His response dealt with potential access by non-UC students.  But he also did not address the question of why UC students were not consulted. Stein’s remarks refer…

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Jerry Brown on Higher Ed Funding in the State of the State

Byuclafaculty

In case you missed it, Gov. Brown’s State of the State message yesterday contained only a brief paragraph on public higher education.  Most of his education remarks were directed at K-12.  Below is what he said about higher ed: “With respect to higher education, cost pressures are relentless and many students cannot get the classes they need. A half million fewer students this year enrolled in the community colleges than in 2008. Graduation in four years is the exception and transition from one segment to the other is difficult. The University of California, the Cal State system and the community…

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California Assembly Speaker John Pérez on the UC Budget, Tuition, Access, and Other Matters

Byuclafaculty

At the January 17, 2013 UC Regents meeting John Pérez spoke about the state budget and other issues. Pérez is an ex officio regent.  A summary follows and there is a link to an audio of his remarks at the bottom of this post: Summary: UC is unrealistic about increased funding from the state, backfilling of past budget cuts, or predictability for the university.  It is not addressing predictability for students.  UC was good at protecting the neediest students but not so good at protecting the middle class.  There are legislative concerns about graduate and professional school students, not just…

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Push to Freeze Tuition in Legislature (That Isn’t Likely to be Enacted)

Byuclafaculty

From the Ventura County Star: Republicans in the state Legislature have proposed freezing tuition at California’s public universities and community colleges for the next seven years. The legislation, which was introduced this week before the governor announced his budget, also would increase funding to California State University, the University of California and community colleges so they don’t have to charge more to make ends meet. But it doesn’t give any specifics on how to do that… The bill originally would have penalized the UC system if it raised tuition by decreasing state funding… But (the bill’s author) said he removed…

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Seven

Byuclafaculty

There are seven years in a sabbatical.  Snow White had seven dwarfs.  There are seven deadly sins.  And Prop 30 – the governor’s now-enacted tax initiative – raised taxes for seven years. So legislative Republicans are pushing for a seven-year freeze on public university tuitions.  Now it is true that the Republicans are in a diminished situation with Democrats holding a supermajority in the state legislature.  But the idea of a tuition freeze will have an appeal beyond Republican ranks. The PolitiCal blog of the LA Times has the story (excerpt): Legislative Republicans on Monday proposed a seven-year freeze on…

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More on State Budget Leaks

Byuclafaculty

As a previous post noted, this is the season in which there are leaks about the governor’s upcoming budget proposal for 2013-14 which will be presented officially in early January.  Given the timing, the budget is already prepared, or 99% prepared. So far, there has been no leak about higher ed.  However, there is an item today in the Sacramento Bee about K-12 (a much larger chunk of the state budget) that suggests the governor will propose revamping the K-12 allocation formulas to give more assistance to disadvantaged children and districts with concentrations of such children. He pushed for changes…

California has a “529” Tax-Favored College Savings Program

Byuclafaculty

In case you didn’t know it, California maintains a tax-favored “529” savings program for college tuition (and related college expenses) that works something like an IRA.  It can be used for any qualified institution nationwide, not just UC. Details are at https://www.scholarshare.com/home.shtml Excerpt: Contributions and Any Earnings Used to Pay for Qualified Higher Education Expenses are Federal and California Income Tax-free. The earnings portion of any distributions used to pay for qualified higher education expenses will be free from federal and California income tax. Federal Estate and Gift Tax BenefitsContributions to ScholarShare may reduce the taxable value of your estate. For…

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Rebenching: UCLA Academic Senate Prefers More Rather than Less

Byuclafaculty

The benches may be old but we like them. The “rebenching” issue has resurfaced.  Basically, what is at stake is the formula by which UC money is divided up among the campuses.  The Daily Bruin today reviews the issue and the view of the UCLA Academic Senate: The response states that the Senate is “adamantly opposed” to the current proposal – known as rebenching – and outlines the potentially negative impacts it could have on the UCLA campus… …Rebenching aims to equalize funding per student across all of the UC campuses by distributing state funds to each campus based on set student enrollment…

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PPIC Poll Covers Higher Ed Concerns

Byuclafaculty

The latest opinion poll from the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) covers a variety of issues including higher education.  It suggests parents are worried about whether their kids will get into a public higher ed institution and what it will cost if they do.  As the table below shows, half want their kids to go to grad school. [Click on the table to enlarge and get a clearer image.] You can find the poll at: http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/survey/S_1212MBS.pdf

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Did I say that?

Byuclafaculty

A look backwards: Lieutenant Governor (and ex officio Regent) Gavin Newsom was interviewed on KGO radio on Oct. 17 about Prop 30 and its relation to tuition.  In the course of the interview, he criticized Governor Brown for being late to get into the campaign for the proposition and, effectively, for not telling students the truth that their tuition would rise even if Prop 30 passed. At the time, polling (which proved inaccurate) was indicating that Prop 30’s chance of passage was marginal.  And Governor Brown had just made a campaign stop at UCLA to enlist student support.  As it…