Sounds like income re-distribution to me.
http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/2010/12/10/csu-tuition-increase-subsidizes-other-students-education/69614/
(Orange County Register/Brian Joseph)
Not so, says a CSU spokeshole.
"The education of each resident student attending a public institution of higher learning in the state of California, whether receiving any form of financial aid or not, is in fact subsidized in some way. At the CSU, a student who pays the full fee rate is receiving a subsidy on about two-thirds of the cost of their education ($7,305 in 2010-11), with that funding coming from the state.
The primary purpose of the State University Grant (SUG) program is to promote access and ensure affordability for those students with the least ability to pay for a postsecondary [sic] education. However, the notion that “students are expected to subsidize the education of their fellow classmates” is a common misperception. There is no transfer of dollars from student A who does not receive financial aid to student B who does.
In regards to the distribution of financial aid, the CSU first determines whether a student meets general eligibility requirements. One of the programs is the state Cal Grant that covers the State University Fee (what is charged as tuition) for most CSU recipients and comes from state general funding. If a student is eligible for financial aid, but not a Cal Grant or other grant/scholarship designated for payment of fees or a waiver of fees, they can receive a State University Grant (SUG). This student’s state university fee would be covered by the SUG award for a net cost of zero dollars to that student.
Financial aid and federal tax credits may also be available for many students who do not receive a Cal Grant or SUG, including those with family incomes of up to $180,000.
Ultimately, the resources available to the CSU from either fees or state funds pay for the broad range of educational expenses and student services on campus, including providing an increased number of course sections."
Blah blah blah, woof woof woof, quack quack quack. Sounds like a three card monty to me.
Excuse me, but let's break that down into simple numbers even a UC Santa Cruz Community Studies major could understand. One third of student tuition fees go to financial aid for students with lower incomes.
That's income redistribution.
3 comments:
Gary, your arithmetic is deplorable. If two thirds of the cost of education - for a student who pays the entire fee - is subsidized by taxpayers, then no recipient of that subsidy has any standing to complain that "their fees" are subsidizing "someone else's education." Did you consult someone in the math department at UC Santa Cruz?
The original state university program was that all state residents attended tuition free, period. Room and board was either paid by each student, or, in case of financial need was also subsidized. That was a better system. However, politicians are always nibbling at the edges of things to try to appear to offer their voters something free while hiding the fact that it has to be paid for.
Siarlys,
How about you pay for your education and I will pay for mine? Whatever happened to that?
As Ronald Reagan used to say Gary, "There you go again." You get caught short without your facts and numbers on one position, you immediately shift to a whole new question.
You pay for your education and I'll pay for mine, was explicitly set aside with the first Land Grant colleges. In the 19th century the Republican Party (which is where most of America's progressives resided at the time) decided that access to college education was so important to the political health of a democratic republic that provision should be made to insure high quality, accessible, institutions of higher learning.
We've lost both sides of that. The public universities are neither so accessible, nor such high quality, partly because we have this mythos that "everyone" needs a college education. My twelfth cousin's daughter graduated with a degree in political science, and got a job as manager of a department store.
How did we get to the point that a department store looked for a college degree in hiring managers?
Incidentally, people CAN be literate without going to college. But it is a good thing that a kid born in Mississippi who grew up on the streets of Chicago can go to college and became the nation's leading expert on laser technology.
Lot's of people with less potential can AFFORD to pay for four years at a party school, or at least, their daddy can.
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