California students may be relieved from paying an extra $500
next year, thanks to a state surplus that Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger will use to offset planned student fee
increases.
Included in the proposed budget is an increase in the maximum
amount incoming freshmen can receive from a Cal Grant scholarship
from $8,322 to $9,708. The Cal Grant scholarship is based on merit
and financial need.
The state has experienced “better-than-expected
revenues” this year, said H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the
Department of Finance, and “the governor felt it was
appropriate to help students and their parents.”
Anu Joshi, president of the University of California Student
Association, is “ecstatic” that not only will students
save hundreds of dollars next year, but the governor’s
decision “sets a precedent that the state does not need to
rely on student fee increases as a source of revenue for the
state.”
According to a compact Schwarzenegger made with the UC in 2004,
which outlined steady student fee increases over the next six
years, undergraduate students would pay an additional $492 and
graduate students would pay an additional $690 for school next
year.
Instead, students are directly benefiting from the state’s
growing economy, as the governor’s proposed budget, which
will be released on Jan. 10, will provide $141.3 million to the
college systems and give students a break from fee increases for
next year.
Richard Stapler, spokesman for Assembly Speaker Fabian
Núñez, D-Los Angeles, said the governor’s decision
to cancel student fee increases “sends a strong message to
students, parents and taxpayers of California … that we’re
serious about investing in education.”
This investment will “reap wonderful returns 10, 15 years
down the line” by producing an educated workforce, he
said.
A combination of factors led to Schwarzenegger’s decision
to cancel student fee increases next year, and some have said they
believe it is a ploy to earn support in an election year.
“The parents of the students here are his constituents and
they vote in the elections. … I’m sure (they) will be quite
pleased with it for the year,” said Joel Aberback, a
political science professor.
But Joshi attributed the decision in part to students lobbying
the governor to cancel fee increases, which she said they have been
doing for three years.
Student Regent Adam Rosenthal also pointed to ways the
governor’s decision fits in with his other policies: Raising
fees is like taxing students, he said, which is inconsistent with
his reluctance to raise taxes in the state.
Though students will be saving money next year under the
governor’s proposed budget, there is concern for the ability
of fees to remain stable in a fluctuating economy.
“In economic bad times, fees skyrocket; in good times they
level off. We need to be looking at that in the coming years,
making sure that’s not the case,” Stapler said.
Rosenthal was pleasantly surprised with the governor’s
decision to cancel student fee increases next year, but is
skeptical of the UC’s long-term student fee plan.
“A constant, fair and reasonable fee policy … is much
more agreeable to me than three years of no fee increase, then
three years of massive fee increases,” he said. “The UC
can’t rely on such an erratic fee policy.”
Senate President Don Perata, D-Oakland, stressed the need for
stable fees in order for students and their families to finance an
education.
“The governor is off to a good start, but college is for
four years. If you help a student one year, what happens the other
three years?” he said in a statement.
There has been some concern that students will have to make up
for next year’s fee cancellation with huge fee increases in
coming years, but officials say this is not the case.
The student fees are assigned on a year-to-year basis, Palmer
said. Each fall, he said, the regents and the UC make their
assessments of the budget and “this year they had sufficient
resources to forgo those increases.”
Stapler said students can be assured that they will not
experience steeper fee increases due to next year’s
break.
“The governor is going to be putting money into the budget
that will backfill what would have been a tuition increase,”
he said. “The money’s going to be there,
regardless.”
In an unstable economy, many officials agree that affordable
higher education is extremely important.
“Education is the great equalizer,” Stapler said.
“If we make it affordable to only the affluent few,
you’re taking away the power of education.”