How is it California could afford free higher education 45 years ago, when it was poorer?

[Hannah Bell]

What happened?

From 1970 to 2001 the American economy more than doubled, adjusted for inflation.

During the 1990s California's foreign exports tripled in a 10-year period.

Why can't we continue to finance public education?


The answer, not surprisingly, is a regressive tax system that forces workers to pay a far higher share of their income in taxes than the wealthy, once sales taxes, tolls and other indirect taxes are factored in. To illustrate the point, (Camejo) looked at a sample of exactly typical 100 adult Californians:

"The top 1 percent of our people--that is just one of our hundred in this example--has more income than over 60 percent of our people.

The top 5 percent make the equivalent of 85 percent of the income earned by the other 95 percent of the population. If that top 5 percent is not paying its fair share of taxes, it is impossible to balance the budget.

If there is one fact that explains the budget crises and decline of funding for education in California, it is this fact. This is the policy promoted by the Democratic and Republic parties, which have consciously and deliberately raised your taxes and allowed education to decline as they cut the taxes of the rich and of corporations."


http://socialistworker.org/2010/03/05/day-of-action-journal


I AM a graduate student in literature, and my department (along with every other department in the humanities) has been among the hardest hit at University of California Santa Cruz. Funding for graduate students is scarce: I've watched many of my friends and colleagues take leaves of absence this year, and I wonder if I will need to do the same next year.

But I'm not just angry about my own uncertain future; I'm angry for my students. The supposedly prestigious UC education that my students are receiving is merely a ghost of what it was even five years ago.

Course enrollments are already too large, and increasing yearly. Teaching assistants and discussion sections are being cut. Libraries may soon be closed for days at a time. Written assignments are being reduced or replaced with multiple-choice exams. Retention programs for economically disadvantaged students and students of color are being slashed. And for this, my students--those who can afford to remain in school--will pay 32 percent more in tuition. I can't stand for this. And neither should you.

The UCSC March 4 Strike Committee--a body made up of students, faculty, and workers--has made our demands.

We demand that Sacramento enact progressive taxation on the wealthy and corporations to increase funding for all levels of public education. We demand that the UC administration roll back the fee increases, rescind layoffs and furloughs, and restore full funding to all programs, departments, and services. We further demand that the UC join the struggles against California's worsening income inequality and the renewed segregation of public education. Finally, we demand that the UC Santa Cruz administration immediately halt its campaign of intimidation and harassment against politically active students and workers, and that all charges against student activists be dropped.

http://socialistworker.org/2010/03/01/march-4-roundtable-one

[leveymg]

1. That was before Prop 13 (1978) gutted the tax base

I still can't figure out why Californians won't just pass a measure to repeal it.

[AllentownJake]

3. because people making $30,000 a year

assume the government is coming for them for taxes, and judging by the past 30 years, they might be right.

[leveymg]

14. When I knocked on 4000 doors for Obama I spread the word that if they made less than $250K no new

taxes. Barack did pledge that for them there would not be "any form of tax increase." I wonder if that pledge is still good with the so-called Cadillac tax on existing comprehensive health care plans in the Senate HCR Bill. If the Dems don't strip that out in Reconciliation, they're going to lose a lot of middle-class voters, particularly public sector employees.

Anything to shift the tax burden downward. Even political suicide.

[AllentownJake]

2. The worst thing you can do economically for your future

Is deny access to the lower classes in education by either taxing their future wages through high priced loans, or denying it all together through price.

This is simply an attack by the wealthy on the lower classes.

[asdjrocky]

4. Could you say "working class" at least, instead of lower class?

[AllentownJake]

8. We live in a caste system

We just don't have the neat names the Aryans sent up in India to maintain control.

Believe it or not, I choose my words to piss people off. Lower class is accurate because that is what the people in power think of them.

[anonymous171]

16. But one of the criticisms of the lower classes is that they do not work.

The term "Working class" subverts that frame.

[stray cat]

5. Too much spending and not enough income and few things in life are free

[Hannah Bell]

7. "not enough income" - why? stop jerking your knee.

[AllentownJake]

9. Stockholm syndrome nt.

[Starry Messenger]

6. But Larry Ellison got his property tax refund

that's all that matters. He's happy.

[Davis_X_Machina]

10. Fewer Mexicans.

It's a California tradition since Bear Flag Republic days to blame the Mexicans, and I see no reason to change that now....

[randr]

11. One issue is the cost of prisons after the three strike law

[Odin2005]

12. Prop 13 and anti-tax morons.

[blindpig]

13. k&r n/t

[Igel]

15. Nah. delete

self-delete

[taught_me_patience]

17. Baby boomer got theirs

then said FU to the next generation.

[Cronus Protagonist]

18. The prison lobby is powerful in CA

3 strikes, more peeps in prison, higher prison costs to outsourced corporations who need to make more and ever increasing profits off the imprisonment of our peeps.