CSU remains a bargain

Press-Telegram 3/15/07

We never like to see the California State University make college more expensive. The poorest students suffer the consequences of an inefficient state government that spends public money on political supporters rather than where it is most needed.

Many students waiting - and cleaning - tables in order to afford Long Beach, Dominguez Hills and other campuses often can't earn or borrow enough to complete required course work.

Meanwhile, legislators have spiked pension funds to dangerous levels for the public employee unions that put them in office and spend their days - and taxpayer money - writing legislation on important issue like whether an ingredient found in Twinkies should be illegal.

When it comes to budgeting for higher education, the math-phobics in Sacramento pretty much respond in the same way: Raise the fees.

Though the 10 percent increase approved Wednesday is in response to the governor's budget plan, CSU trustees haven't done themselves any favors - at least in the public relations arena - by giving executives and university presidents six-figure salaries for a year after they retire or accept new jobs.

If only for symbolic purposes, executive perks should be jettisoned before a single student is lost to higher fees.

Regardless of the tuition spike, the CSU remains a good deal at $3,400 a year compared with the $7,400 average cost at University of California and the $5,836 average at public colleges nationwide. Private colleges now average a staggering $30,000 a year.

This is one of the reasons U.S. News and World Report ranked Cal State Long Beach alongside UC Berkeley as one of the best values in higher education.

Tack on an extra 10 percent and CSULB remains a deal - a claim not many public institutions can make.

Some CSU campuses, of course, are in the nation's more expensive housing markets, including Los Angeles and Orange counties, San Francisco and San Diego, so fee increases are felt even harder.

But students who spend the first two years at a California community college and the second two at CSU can still realize one of the few true bargains in quality public education in the nation - and the world. At least that option remains.

Though we hate to watch students borrow to get something they need to become successful in life, a college education remains true to that old oxymoron, "good debt," and not only because loan interest is deductible.

The college-educated - about a quarter of Californians - earn far more than those with high school diplomas. Increasing the ranks of the uneducated is about as practical as taking out a sub-prime home loan.