Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Schwarzenegger Betrays Students on Tuitions

Stewart A. Alexander | 20.03.2007 18:40 | Education | Social Struggles

Advocate groups for free education consider the recent tuition hikes for UC and CSU students to be no less than a tax on college students. California Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has done nothing to make education affordable for students since he was elected in 2003. In the past the governor’s office has made it clear that education is a right for K-12, but not for higher education.



Stewart A. Alexander
Views and News

March 20, 2007

When California Governor Schwarzenegger froze student tuitions, prior to the November 2006 Election, it was another political strategy to garner votes to win re-election. During that year Governor Schwarzenegger rescinded an 8 percent tuition increase when the California State Legislature found the additional money in the state’s budget.

Schwarzenegger traveled throughout the state speaking with students; boasting his commitment to higher education, making several stops at university and state college campuses.

Now that the elections are over Schwarzenegger has shifted gears; again on his mission to build more prisons and to benefit his special interest partners out of the wallets of college students.

The money that California is investing in the state’s prison system, to house 173,000 inmates, could provide a free education for California’s 626,000 public university students, to include the fees for professional students. In recent years California has added 22 new prisons statewide; now the governor is choosing to build more prisons rather than to invest California revenues into higher education.

Since 2001 undergraduate tuition fees have climbed sharply, more than a 90 percent increase for students at UC and CSU schools; and fees at professional schools are creating a financial hardship on professional students. In 1994, professional school students paid less than $7,000 annually, now the fees for professional students have gone through the ceiling. Professional fees may range between $18,000 to over $27,000 annually.

The recent tuition hikes also come at a time when there are concerns over the outrageous administrative salaries for UC and CSU administrative officials; some salaries being well above $500,000 annually. Since 2005 CSU executives have received an average of 23 percent in pay increases.

The majority of students attending state colleges and universities are mounting up huge debts with education loans that they will be required to repay. Unfortunately, many students will come from families that will not be able to offer any financial assistance. Many others will be employed in low paying jobs, earning less than $30,000 annually, or will be without employment upon graduating. This will jeopardize their credit due to their inability to repay their student loans on time.

Advocate groups for free education consider the tuition hikes to be no less than a tax on students. Governor Schwarzenegger has done nothing to make education affordable for students since he was elected in 2003. In the past the governor’s office has made it clear that education is a right for K-12, but not for higher education.

The new California Lieutenant Governor, John Garamendi, has been quiet about all of the tuition hikes and is watching from the sidelines. Lieutenant Governor Garamendi holds the second highest office in California state government, and as an elected representative the lieutenant governor sits on the Board of the University of California Regents and is the Trustee of the California State Universities.

Since Garamendi took office, in January 2007, he has not spoken against the increased tuition hikes; increases that will cause tens of thousands to sacrifice a good education. This would contradict his campaign commitment to be a forceful advocate for children and hardworking families, “I will be a guardian of higher education.”

It will probably be another three years before students see any breaks in tuition fees because California’s two top executives, Schwarzenegger-(R), and Garamendi-(D), are on the opposite side of the fence from students and working class people.

For more information search the Web for Stewart A. Alexander; Lieutenant Governor Candidate Wants Free Education By 2009; Alexander Wants Students Tips Tax Exempted.

 http://www.salt-g.com
 stewartalexander4paf@ca.rr.com





Stewart A. Alexander
- e-mail: stewartalexander4paf@ca.rr.com
- Homepage: http://www.salt-g.com

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech