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You're cherrypicking by focusing on UC in isolation. Higher education funding in California has gone up from ~5.5 billion to ~16 billion nominal from 1990 to no

by ummonk 6y ago

You're cherrypicking by focusing on UC in isolation. Higher education funding in California has gone up from ~5.5 billion to ~16 billion nominal from 1990 to now. Overall funding has gone up - it was just focused on community colleges at the expense of UC, as it should be to avoid exacerbating economic inequality.

mjn 6y ago
That's true! This thread I thought was about whether tuition at places like UCs has gone up because of cost increases or state funding decreases though. As far as I can tell from the budgets, it's primarily due to per-student state funding decreases, which match almost dollar-for-dollar with tuition hikes. I.e. the UC is hiking tuition to make up for declining per-student state support, not because the UC is spending more per-student to deliver the education (in real terms). The community college system has been funded more generously, and not coincidentally, hasn't seen the same tuition hikes. You can still get an associate's degree that's almost 100% taxpayer-funded in CA, just no longer a bachelor's. (Cal State is kind of halfway in between, still much more state-funded than the UCs, but not anywhere near the per-student levels of 1990, which is why in-state tuition there is creeping towards $10k.)
- secabeen 6y ago
  > (Cal State is kind of halfway in between, still much more state-funded than the UCs, but not anywhere near the per-student levels of 1990, which is why in-state tuition there is creeping towards $10k.) This is an interesting observation, as the Cal States are more focused on instruction than UC, which I think helps justify their (and the CCs) better state funding. UC looks like its flush from all the federal research dollars it pulls in, and from running the hospitals, so the Assembly feels it's easier to cut there, than at CalState/CCs, where they don't have the research or hospital money.
fastaguy88 6y ago
A better measure of state support for higher education is the fraction of the state budget devoted to higher education. I suspect that in California, even with the dramatic expansion of access through community colleges and the state university system, a smaller fraction of the state budget supports higher education. Medicaid and prisons are paid for first.

by ummonk 6y ago

mjn 6y ago

That's true! This thread I thought was about whether tuition at places like UCs has gone up because of cost increases or state funding decreases though. As far as I can tell from the budgets, it's primarily due to per-student state funding decreases, which match almost dollar-for-dollar with tuition hikes. I.e. the UC is hiking tuition to make up for declining per-student state support, not because the UC is spending more per-student to deliver the education (in real terms). The community college system has been funded more generously, and not coincidentally, hasn't seen the same tuition hikes. You can still get an associate's degree that's almost 100% taxpayer-funded in CA, just no longer a bachelor's. (Cal State is kind of halfway in between, still much more state-funded than the UCs, but not anywhere near the per-student levels of 1990, which is why in-state tuition there is creeping towards $10k.)

secabeen 6y ago
> (Cal State is kind of halfway in between, still much more state-funded than the UCs, but not anywhere near the per-student levels of 1990, which is why in-state tuition there is creeping towards $10k.) This is an interesting observation, as the Cal States are more focused on instruction than UC, which I think helps justify their (and the CCs) better state funding. UC looks like its flush from all the federal research dollars it pulls in, and from running the hospitals, so the Assembly feels it's easier to cut there, than at CalState/CCs, where they don't have the research or hospital money.

fastaguy88 6y ago

A better measure of state support for higher education is the fraction of the state budget devoted to higher education. I suspect that in California, even with the dramatic expansion of access through community colleges and the state university system, a smaller fraction of the state budget supports higher education. Medicaid and prisons are paid for first.