Why Should Students In California Demand An End To Fee And Tuition Increases ?

A STUDENTS OCCUPY LA (SOLA) / OCCUPY EDUCATION CALL TO ACTION

WHY SHOULD STUDENTS IN CALIFORNIA DEMAND AN END TO FEE AND TUITION INCREASES ?

California students are opposed to past and current increases in educational tuitions and fees, and seek an end to the continuing cost hikes for and budget cuts to our schools.

Continual tuition and fee increases have placed the cost of a university degree out of reach of working class minority families and youth.

California’s public post-education system is so underfunded that course offerings and faculty are drastically cut. Thus it takes many students twice as long as it should to graduate, compounding the debt crisis for most other students.

The lack of well-paying, available jobs upon graduation means these students will have a very hard time repaying loans. In the USA, the student loan industry has become a huge, government-entitled beast that usurps enormous amounts of wealth for the banks and other loan sharks at the expense of students’ well-being. This loan system, which most students rely on to pay for their degrees, is labeled a “debt slavery” system.

Note: in almost 2 dozen industrialized countries, post-secondary education is free.

As just one example, the costs of attending the CSU system are now overwhelming. These costs have quadrupled over the past decade. Ten years ago, annual tuition was about $1,600. Currently annual tuition for full-time undergraduate students is $5,970.00. When campus fees are included, the average total cost rises to more than $7,000.00 before books, room and board, transportation and other costs.

At this time, the average cost of a full-time, undergraduate student to study in the CSU system per year - living away from parents - is about $ 23,000.00 annually. You’re looking at about $138,000.00 to graduate with a bachelors degree over 6 years.

It is taking many CSU students 7 or 8 years to graduate, as the availability of classes has been severely restricted due to continual university budget cutbacks.

The current 2011-2012 proposed CSU fee increase for tuition is the ninth fee increase in nine years. A $498 increase in 2012-13 fees would come on top of a 12 % hike in  the fall of 2011, a 9 % increase in 2010, and a 32 % increase in 2009.

We demand that the higher public education system in California receive proper public funding. We insist California post-secondary public education be restored as the “Master Plan” established in the 1950s by Governor Jerry Brown’s father, Governor Pat Brown. The intent of this system was to make higher education accessible and affordable to all students, not reserved only for the wealthy.

The youth are America’s future. Undermining access to quality education attacks and undermines the well-being of youth and society.

Continued attacks violate the spirit of international human rights agreements guaranteeing education, including the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights accepted by the U. S. A. in 1948.

When the state spends more money on prisons than on education - when our inclination and effort is to incarcerate rather than educate minority youth - when prison guards get higher salaries than professors - when 59% of every federal tax dollar goes to war and war-related expenses instead of education and other basic human services - when student loans in the USA are over one trillion dollars, eclipsing the nation’s credit card debt - when the same people fleecing students of their future earnings foreclose on about 10 million homeowners using predatory sub-prime loans, and are not held criminally accountable - when 50 million impoverished people cannot afford health care insurance, and hundreds of thousands die prematurely because of it - when 99% of us pay 25% & 33% of our income in taxes, while many of the wealthy 1% pay 15% to zero percent in taxes - when 33% of the millions of homeless in the USA are veterans - then it is abundantly clear that the system is broken and we require a complete overhaul of the ways OUR society is operated.

As our first step, we are demanding an end to all new fee and tuition increases across the state, and a return to proper funding for all public education in California.

Join us in taking to the streets, insisting on proper funding for education, & fundamentally changing the way our society functions. Let us dedicate ourselves to this task!

END CA UNIVERSITY & COLLEGE BUDGET CUTS & TUITION / FEE HIKES !

RESTORE CALIFORNIA HIGHER EDUCATION’S MASTER PLAN !!