California college students are mobilizing to freeze tuition at the University of California and California State University for the next five years, according to an article in The San Diego Union-Tribune.
Fees at these universities have been raised five of the past six years. According to the Union-Tribune article, students are paying $7,511 in tuition, which is 10 times what students paid in 1980. The average UC student is paying about $24,000 a year for school, including tuition, books, living expenses and transportation. A student attending a California State University campus is paying $15,000 a year for tuition, books and on-campus living expenses.
If the students have their way, tuition would stay at its current level for the next five years. After the initial five years, fees could increase annually by no more than the change in the California Consumer Price Index.
Students are organizing to get 434,000 signatures by April to put the College Affordability Act of 2008 on the November ballot. The College Affordability Act would tax California residents with incomes of $1 million or more an additional 1 percent. This revenue would then be used to help fund public education.
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