It's budget time again for California's public university systems. Every November, the California State University trustees and the University of California regents start planning for the next fiscal year. Everybody is predicting that the coming budget cycle is going to be particularly tough, with revenues flat and a deficit projected to be as high as $10 billion.
With a fiscal crunch looming, the Cal State Board of Trustees and the UC Board of Regents feel like they're wearing bull's-eyes. California's great public universities are always tempting targets for budget cutters, in part because their boards have been too willing to increase student fees when threatened with lagging state support.
We've been creeping down that road toward privatization for years, slowly shifting the cost of running our public universities from the public at large to students and their families. Over the last 13 years, as the cost of living went up by 40% in California, total student fees for resident undergraduates at Cal State increased by 90%, and at UC by about 110%.
Enough is enough. Cal State and UC fees should be stabilized at current levels, in constant dollars. That means no future increases except to keep pace with inflation.
Putting money into higher education is one of the soundest infrastructure investments that California can make. California's public universities pay for themselves: For every $1 spent, about $3 comes back to the state as a byproduct of a larger economy and higher incomes.
Of course, we must demand administrative efficiency and financial accountability. But we must also halt the trend toward privatization.
It is false to think that if Cal State and UC charge "market" tuition, all their operating expenses will be met, let alone the capital cost of new facilities. Great universities do not live by tuition alone. The top price of college tuition is largely set by Ivy League universities, and some others such as Duke and Stanford. With a few exceptions, these elite schools are not state supported. Instead, they rely on huge private endowments to subsidize tuition and fund scholarships for students who need financial assistance and who qualify for admission. Cal State and UC lack such substantial endowments. Even at full-bore Ivy-League tuition levels, forcing our state universities to rely solely on fees would lead to layoffs, enrollment restrictions and, ultimately, a serious diminution in academic quality.
