For the second time this year, the California State University system is raising fees significantly. In January, fees for undergraduates went up 10 percent and fees for graduate students 15 percent. Students returned from winter break to a brand new bill.

Now fees are rising again, by a whopping 30 percent, amounting to roughly $500 more per year.

Trustees are trying to soften the blow by noting that financial aid will be increased to match the higher fees. Unfortunately, loan limits don't change and the strata of students who don't qualify for aid will be further left in the financial lurch.

Often the increasing number of older people going back to school don't qualify for aid because of age limitations. Or they don't qualify because their income is considered too high, even though they may be supporting families.

Younger middle-class students are often caught in between; family income makes them ineligible for aid, but there is not enough money to pay for children's college education. The extra $500 can be a hardship.

While we recognize the need for difficult decisions in this time of financial crisis, such increases cut against California's long-held conviction that higher education should be accessible to anyone who has the dicipline and the drive, regardless of economic status. This ideal is embraced by the Cal State schools where tuition is much lower than in the University of California system and schools welcome so many community college transfers.

We would hope the Cal State system is doing all it can at the administrative level to cut costs. Students should be the last thing sacrificed on the altar of the state's beleaguered budget.

California's future depends upon its schools, from grade school through college, to provide a complete, quality education for all of its citizens.

GOOD GOVERNMENT
San Bernardino officials all ears
Our View: City council members have the right idea give people a voice in fixing budget mess.

Give San Bernardino city leaders credit for trying to find the least painful ways out of their state-caused budget dilemma.

Give them even more credit for listening to their constituents.

During the past month, most city council members held town meetings in part to solicit ideas for closing an anticipated $4 million budget gap.

At her meetings, Councilwoman Esther Estrada, who represents the 1st Ward, floated the idea of a general obligation bond that would be paid back by voters.

Other ideas include a library tax and cuts in city services.

The bond would be the simplest solution one being considered by a number of other communities.

But "easiest' doesn't necessarily mean "most effective.' San Bernardino is not alone in needing a critical, zero-based assessment of city services.

No organization is without its waste, and until the community can be assured that every penny is being maximized, it's not the time to ask for more.

As the city's shareholders, voters and taxpayers need to be insistent about this.

Nevertheless, the level of engagement between City Hall and its constituents is a model for other communities wrestling with the same issues.

State lawmakers, too, could stand to learn something from San Bernardino.

The state budget crisis has reached a feverish pitch, and yet, as is typically the case, it has broken down into a battle between left and right, Democrat vs. Republican.

"We The People' are tired of that.

If you can't lead, at least listen.