Re "Higher education deal blasted," May 12: How nice that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, UC President Robert Dynes and CSU Chancellor Charles Reed reached an agreement regarding fee hikes that is "acceptable to everyone." Just whom does he consider everyone?Schwarzenegger's fee hikes at the state colleges are not acceptable to everyone, especially to the students who will have to pay for units. Students are already struggling to pay fees that increased last fall.
While it's bad enough that UC and CSU students will have to face fee increases, at least the money will go back into their colleges. Community College fees increased from $11 a unit to $18 a unit last fall and when they increase again this fall, my money will go to the state's General Fund to help fix the deficit instead of Sacramento City College.

UC and CSU students are not the only ones upset over fee increases.

Brenna Scheier, Sacramento

I have a few questions for college students protesting hikes in fees.

How much bottled water do you consume each month? How many lattes and other coffee drinks do you consume each month? How many hamburgers, fries, tacos, sodas, or other fast foods do you eat each month? What wireless phone service do you have? Does your phone have more than basic service? How many movies do you attend each month? How many CDs and DVDs do you buy each month?

If your answer is no money for any or few of these items, congratulations. If your answer is more than a few dollars, have you ever added the costs to see how much you are spending each month? Consider stopping spending so much on luxuries and setting aside the money to pay the additional fees and the expenses for attending college.

The few years sacrifice made now will be well rewarded with the additional money and prestige the university education will give you in the future.

To the politicians and faculty supporting the protests: Encourage students to make sacrifices today rather than leading them to believe they are owed both the luxuries and education today.

Leonard Kennedy, Sacramento

Re "Fees go up again at UC," May 21: The financial squeeze on the middle class is destroying our standard of living. The UC fee hike is another example of the "domino" effect of the Bush tax cuts. Slashed federal funding for education forced California universities to raise fees, cut admissions and deprive our children of an affordable education.

The few hundred dollars the average American received in tax cuts barely covers skyrocketing oil prices. Corporate profits are up, yet wages are stagnating. New jobs are lower paying than the millions lost. Warren Buffet said that there is class warfare in this country, "and my class is winning." Even the gilded age did not engage in the calculated and well covered-up attack on Middle America that we have seen in this administration.

The transfer of wealth from the middle class to the wealthy is enshrined in the tax code. Bush's attempts to exempt everything from taxation except earned income means that those whose money comes from capital gains, dividends and inheritance are subsidized by the people who must work for a living.

Only a change in November can stop the destruction of every social program upon which the middle class depends.

Marlene Aderman, Roseville