Funding California's Future

2009-10-21T03:01:06Z

Times are tough for college students in California.

State grants are being cut drastically due to budget cuts and Furloughs are closing down entire campuses on non-holidays. It is looking grim for the future of higher education.

Assembly Bill 656, introduced by Majority Leader Alberto Torrico, proposes a gas and oil severance tax in California that could make for a brighter future.

AB 656 was introduced on Feb. 25 and had minor alterations since, the last being on July 7. Currently states with oil supplies, such as Alaska and Texas, have oil severance taxes that help fund higher education and proponents of AB 656 are looking to do the same.

"Fees have increased in eight out of the last 10 years, a 33 percent increase this year at the CSU and UC system alone and financial aid has been reduced, class offerings have been reduced, class sizes have increased," Torrico said. "We're really starting to decimate higher education in California, so there seems to be a bad trend and if we want to invest in our future and invest in young people, we're going to have to put more money into higher education."

In 1994, tuition in the CSU System was $1,428 a year and at the beginning of the 2009/2010 school year tuition was $4,026 a year, one semester costing more than tuition for a full year in 1994.

Torrico had help writing the bill from several assembly members, as well as Senator DeSaulnier and statewide California Faculty Association(CFA). Sacramento State CFA President Kevin Wehr said CFA helped sponsor the bill and pitched the idea to Torrico.

"Majority Leader Torrico agreed that (the bill) was a good idea and proposed it to the assembly," Wehr said. "but we did help with some of the languages and the concepts."

According to the AB 656, a 9.9 percent oil severance tax would be implemented on oil drilling and funding would go toward a California higher education fund and would need to be passed by two-thirds of the assembly.

Torrico said the fund would generate about $1 billion a year and a commission would have to be established to manage the funds.

Assemblywoman Connie Conway, opponent of the bill, said there are better ways to help fund higher education then through AB 656, such as a better disbursement of tax dollars because they are being mismanaged. She said forming a commission to manage the funds is also an unnecessary investment and that money should be put toward higher education.

"Education is important and getting to a place were we can be more supportive and getting to a place where we can be more supportive of education would be great for the California State Legislature," Conway said. "I'm just not sure that this was the right vehicle tying oil production to education. It would create a commission to oversee it and those are so very costly - I'd rather put that money into education."

Conway said she was recently appointed to the Disability Access Commission where they discussed budget and as of now it has cost the state $80,000 to start the commission. The budget would cover the cost of staff and other important miscellaneous expenses.

Regardless of the position being taken in the assembly, students are feeling the impact on campuses around California.

Senior history major Andrew Haas said he believes California's educational system will impact future generations.

"I think we have a big problem with higher education as far as funding," Haas said. "The biggest impact, I think, is that just the fact that higher education, especially here in Sacramento is supposed to propel the city forward and we're the future leaders of the city."

Wehr agreed with Hass. Wehr believes that by no adequately funding higher education, students will be weeded out and the future of California could be greatly affected.

"We are on a downward spiral, right now, our higher education funding here in California has been squeezed and cut for the last six years," Wehr said. "We're actually at approximately half of where we were six years ago, and it's going to keep being a problem."

Wehr said institutions of higher education don't expect to see funding form the state's general fund any time soon - that is why the bill is proposing a dedicated revenue stream. He said the legislature should focus more on higher education because students are the future of California and they will be the ones who will take California out this depression.

According to an Associated Press article released in 2007, California is no longer the sixth largest economy in the world. As of 2007, California was ranked eighth.

The fear of many proponents of the bill is that many people will have less access to higher education and it will affect California's economy directly. And some students, such as freshmen civil engineering major Laura Araque, fear that they will get cheated out of a quality education.

"A lot of people will probably wanting to stop going to school," Araque said. "because why pay so much for so little education."

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Funding California's Future