Oakley Los Angeles Times Op-ed Calls for Freezing Higher Ed Fees
UC Davis law professor John Oakley and California Lt. Gov. John Garamendi wrote a compelling op-ed article that appeared in the Los Angeles Times calling for the stabilization of CSU and UC fees at current levels and preventing the privatization of public universities.
An excerpt is below:
"The best way to improve the lot of the less fortunate is to grow the entire economy, not to wrestle over who gets what slice of a static economic pie. And the surest way to retard the growth of California's economy is to invest less in the structural foundation of California's prosperity—an educated, technologically sophisticated workforce.
"There is a deeply flawed notion out there that the only people who benefit from universities are those who enroll, and that state support for higher education is just a subsidy for high-income families who send their kids to college. Getting an education is not the same as buying a car or hiring someone to paint your house. Education is a public good, like highways and waterways, like national parks and the armed services. Education benefits all and protects all."
"California has become one of the world's great centers of intellect, imagination, and commerce because of our commitment to top-flight higher education. And this commitment has literally paid for itself, in the form of a highly educated workforce and research and scholarship that attract industry. The average income of workers with a college degree is 60 percent higher than that of workers with only a high school degree, and these college graduates pay 80 percent more in taxes than do high school graduates. Moreover, as many as two-thirds of all jobs created in California over the next decade are likely to require education beyond high school."