Last week, President Barack Obama addressed Congress for the first time and laid out the cornerstones of his plan to stimulate the economy: “Now is the time to jump-start job creation, re-start lending and invest in areas like energy, health care and education that will grow our economy.”
Obama’s biggest promise to keep will be that of strengthening our education system. And while Obama has listed education as a critical issue, I feel like breaking into tears Meryl Streep-style because I have doubts. Serious, serious doubts.
For as long as I can remember, education has been a first-priority talking point that gets second or third-priority funding; the kind of thing politicians mean to address but then sideline to deal with something else first.
The American education system works a lot like changing the oil in your car: You know you need to change it, you know that the car will eventually break down if you don’t change it, but you always find an excuse not to do it today. But then, after a couple of weeks go by, the oil light comes on and you’re panicking to get to the Auto Zone for a quart of motor oil before the store closes.
Well, the oil light is on for our education system. The oil light is on for universities. The oil light is on for UCLA.
According to CNNMoney.com, overall costs for private four-year schools increased 4.8 percent in the past year. Overall costs for in-state public schools (like, for example, UCLA) went up by 5.7 percent.
It gets better. The Daily Bruin reported last Tuesday that the state budget, signed Feb. 20, would cut $8.4 billion in education spending, resulting in $115 million in cuts to the UC system. This raises the system’s current budget deficit to $450 million. Before these most recent budget cuts were announced, the UC Board of Regents had already considered increasing student fees by 9.4 percent, almost doubling the average national increase from last year.
After these most recent and disheartening state budget cuts, UCLA campus leaders are looking to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for a sign of hope. Congress provides $107 billion in spending for education, and campus leaders are hoping that funds from Obama’s stimulus plan will rescind the cuts that would result from the state budget.
And luckily, despite being a Republican, Schwarzenegger is not only openly accepting federal stimulus dollars, he’s also accepting donations from GOP governors threatening to reject money from the stimulus bill.
It’s unclear how much California will receive from the federal stimulus bill at this point, but campus officials have made some predictions based on the bill that passed the House earlier in the month. In an article for UCLA Today, Cynthia Lee wrote that in California, “the largest chunk of funding, $8 billion, would come to the state through the Fiscal Stabilization Fund, 61 percent of which would be dedicated to K-16 to spend over two years. Higher education is being directed to use the money to mitigate the need to raise tuition and fees for California resident students.”
In his speech last Tuesday, Obama made a lot of specific promises for funding and galvanizing education. He’s promising tax credits for families struggling to pay college tuition, he’s setting a goal for America to have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020 and he says that college has already been made affordable for nearly 7 million more students.
He’s more than capable of talking some very eloquent and ambitious talk, but we need to see that this stimulus plan walks an equally ambitious walk. And while I’m willing to be optimistic about Obama’s leadership when it comes to Iraq, closing Guantanamo and even creating jobs, education is a subject that has been ignored time and time again, and I just don’t think we can believe the change until we see it.
The oil light is on, and we can’t afford to burn up the engine when it comes to education.
For directions to the nearest supplier of motor oil, e-mail Stoll at rstoll@ucla.edu. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.