By Anne Hall
Staff Writer
I attended the open forum for the Student Success Fee proposal a week or two ago. After the meeting, I had discussed the option of petitioning to the state as concerned students, with the director. She basically informed me that, “Yes, students have tried to petition to the state in the past about funding when the budget was cut in previous years,” and, “No, there has never been any success.”
People are strong in numbers. We’re not the only school that is going through this, other colleges have already implemented such fees and students have been forced to pay. If we were to petition, we have to make that petition statewide, or even national. Going beyond that, we need students and faculty to join together from all schools, including parents and students, even those that have been denied admission. We should write detailed letters asking why the funds need to be increased, what it is going towards, and how negatively we feel that we have to pay additional fees. Especially when our tax dollars are supposed to be supporting these things so that we don’t have to take extra money out of our pockets to get a decent education from the state-funded schools.
Professor Merryl Goldberg says: “The best investment is in people and in educating people. I am very concerned about the lack of funding at all levels, federal, state, and local. Since taxes pay for education, the issue is clearly political. I wouldn’t put it solely on the government, though. We all have a stake in education and we need to speak up and advocate for the best possible education for all of our children. I am especially concerned about inequity. Kids in more affluent neighborhoods have more opportunities than kids from impoverished neighborhoods. I’ve never met a kid who wasn’t capable, but I have met a many kids who haven’t had opportunities and that really saddens me.”
People are home schooling their children more now than ever because the education within public school systems has continued to decline in quality, as well as continued to become more and more unsafe for grades K-12. Standards in California have been raised over the years and no one without a bachelor’s degree is going to work anywhere in this state without starting at or just above minimum wage for a number of years without already having work experience and a degree. Considering we’re one of the most costly states in the nation, and our state obligates us to have to commute to do anything within our cities, the expense of living is already a great burden on our inhabitants. More and more youths are being denied the privilege of a higher education and depleting the quality of knowledgeable individuals within our communities.
Professor Marcos Martinez says: “Students, young people are the most basic form of wealth in our country. They are the future and reflect what will come. People are human capital that fundamentally creates wealth. Instead of our society investing in our own human capital through education as an investment in our future and prosperity we are seeing something downright criminal, with 5 percent of GDP spent on weapons, the military and surveillance of our population as student debt surpasses credit card debt. I don’t agree that our government is completely to blame. It’s clear the American population seems to have limited interest in changing this situation. With limited exceptions around the country, students were silent about the wars, confused about the economy and seem to be generally disinterested in creating change. We have so many other things to do with all of our distractions that we cannot see how the bigger picture in our lives has already shifted and don’t realize that intermission is coming.”
The government has made it clear that they are creating this environment on purpose…so as individuals, we all have to make our positions clear as to how we truly are being affected. If we are ignored after showering lobbyists with detailed letters and statements I’m afraid to see what would happen next.