The Students for
Future Coalition, an organization comprised of students representing the
of
system and the
College
for April 21 with the intent of publicly standing against Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger’s proposed $5-billion budget cuts to education next year.
So far, coalition leaders have planned for protests to take
place throughout the state, ranging from
to
their belief that higher education in
is a significant priority that cannot be compromised.
Louise Hendrickson, president of the UC Students Association
and a graduate student at UC Riverside, is currently working with the
coalition.
Hendrickson said that fee increases for students will be one
of the significant results of budget cuts in the UC system, primarily because
students will be forced to compensate for lost revenue through hikes in student
fees.
“Cuts to the UC budget will be especially compensated by
students through increases in student fees, up to 30 percent,” Hendrickson
said. “It has been confirmed that 10-percent cuts to higher-education systems
across the board will result in a $300-million loss per system. For the UC
system in particular, this loss will be compensated by 10- to 30-percent
increases in student fees.”
Hendrickson also said reprioritizing education within the
state budget is necessary and that Schwarzenegger fails to understand the
importance of higher education to the state’s growth.
“The main point of this coalition is to emphasize the
importance of higher education, so we are coming together to protest the
actions of the governor,” Hendrickson said. “Students in higher education have
the biggest stake in this issue because they are going to have to bear the
brunt of these cuts through fee increases.”
According to Hendrickson, state budget cuts in education
this year are planned to exceed $5 billion and will have widespread effects
ranging from K-12 to the UC, CSU and CCC systems.
The coalition reports that K-12 schools will experience
greater classroom sizes and fewer teachers, as well as diminished arts, sports
and music programs, many of which are already underfunded. Schools will also
experience cuts to their before- and after-school programs, child-nutrition
programs and special-education programs.
Additionally, the coalition reports that over 50,000
potential community-college students will be turned away by the CCC system due
to their inability to pay steeper tuition. The coalition also stated that the
CSU system will be forced to turn away as many as 10,000 potential students due
to lack of accommodations, and that UC students will experience 10- to
30-percent fee hikes as increases in fees are assumed to be the only plausible
manner by which to compensate for budget cuts.
“In terms of the state budget, we need to reprioritize
education as something more important and essential,” Hendrickson said. “We
need to find alternate sources of revenue and funding for these institutions.
Budget cuts that fall on the backs of students through fee increases are not an
optimal solution.”
Hendrickson added that students will play a crucial role in the coalition’s
action, planned for later this month.
“Every student we can get counts,” Hendrickson said. “I
encourage as many students as possible to show up because they have the greatest
stake in this issue. It should be a priority among students.”
