Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s offer to have the state pay for the latest round of public-university fee hikes has received praise from student-rights advocates and legislators alike.
The governor’s preliminary 2006-07 budget, leaked by administration officials before the official plan is unveiled Jan. 10, spares UC students from an additional $492 fee hike next year. The fee-break plan will take advantage of a rare fiscal year with an unanticipated $5.2 billion surplus in state reserves from tax income and ongoing budget cuts, according to a Legislative Analyst’s Office report.
UC students were due to pay $6,633 — an 8-percent increase from the previous year — in total mandatory annual fees for 2006-07, approved by the UC Board of Regents in November. However, the regents added a provision to the hike, stating that the board would cut or eliminate the increase if the Legislature could provide the adequate funding. The board was confident that the governor’s budget would roll back proposed fee hikes, according to Richard Stapler, a spokesman for state Assembly Speaker and ex-oficio Regent Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles).
“The regents did not want to be put into a position where they could not go back on these fee increases,” Stapler said. “[Nunez] assured the board at the meeting that at budget negotiations … the state budget would most likely be able to provide the relief it has.”
A December meeting between UC student leaders and the governor’s representatives prompted the Legislature to take notice of an “incogitable” financial situation, with student fees at nearly double their 1999 levels, according to UC Students Association President Anu Joshi.
“Students and California families are struggling to afford a UC education,” she said. “We’re graduating $20,000 in debt. The affordability of education has been threatened, the state has been using students as a revenue source and finally the governor has decided to prioritize higher education. We thank him for that.”
Nuñez, a vocal opponent of the fee hikes, also voiced acclaim of the governor.
“We’re heartened by the governor’s effort to make sure UC and CSU students aren’t hit with what we consider an unfair tax,” Stapler said. “Education is the great equalizer in California and to make it so expensive takes away from that ability to equalize.”
The budget proposal still has its skeptics, who worry over the plan’s relationship to the 2004 state budget compact between the university and Schwarzenegger. Under the compact, the UC is required to increase student fees at a steady rate until 2011 if legislative funding cannot support the 10-campus university system.
A one-year break in student fees strays from predictability and still does not deal with the long-term future of student finances, according to state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland).
“The governor is off to a good start, but college is for four years,” Perata stated in an e-mail. “If you help a student one year, what happens the other three years? Stability and certainty for students is one of the key areas we need to address.”
For now, any long-term guarantee of flat fee levels is a pipe dream, Joshi said.
“The reality is that the state and UC budget has to be approved year-to-year, so we have to fight against fee hikes every year,” she said. “This one year of fee-relief at least shows us it’s possible.”
Because the university cannot roll over or exceed its revenue, fiscal stability still exists, Joshi said. While the cancellation of fee hikes if approved by the Legislature places the financial burden on the California taxpayer, the benefits outweigh the monetary concerns, Staples said.
“It’s all about investing and reinvesting, just like with policemen and firemen,” he said. “For every dollar put into a student, the state gets more back, and that’s what the UC system brings to the table.”
