[Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to slash higher education funding by about 10% would deny education to tens of thousands of qualified students and have a devastating long-term effect on the state's economy, university and college leaders said Wednesday.
The governor's proposed cutbacks for the University of California, California State University and the state's community college system also would mean reductions in financial aid, fewer classes and a decrease in student services, such as counseling, they said.
With the new round of cuts, for example, UC and Cal State would have to reduce enrollment by 27,000 over the next 2 1/2 years, enough students to populate a campus, the study found.
To maintain the current level of quality at UC while making up for the cuts, annual student fees would have to jump to $10,500, from $7,511, the UC study found. Within a few years, fees at UC could rise as high as $18,000, it concluded.
"If we want to turn the economy around, this is the time to maintain our investment in higher education," she said.
"By 2025. if we continue on this same course of cumulative budget cuts on a cyclical basis, the California workforce will be 3 million short and California will not be competitive," Cal State Chancellor Reed said.]-LAT
No good. Clearly will have a heavy domino effect on the economy.
