America’s youth is the future. America may sustain
its prominence by ensuring the youth thrive with intelligence. Education is the
primary source of enhancing both children and young adults with tools to
succeed. College degrees permit people to enter into a career. Most employers
today admire a workforce with a high, reputable education. As the current
economy is struggling, well-educated individuals may revive businesses and
consequently, the economy. However, as economic matters dwindle down, so does
public education. School systems lack necessary funding to implement productive
education, especially in California. The Californian education system has
recently reduced classes, staff, and admissions. California’s lack of funds
remains a severe issue, and ignoring it may only result in more problems. A solution to California’s decaying public
school system is proposition 30, which calls for temporary, slight tax
increases.
If
passed, proposition 30 will increase the tax rate in incomes above $250,000 per
individual by 1 to 3 percentage points for seven years. Proposition 30 also
calls for an additional tax increase on the state sales tax by a quarter of a
cent for four years, which would generate about $1.2 billion a year. 89% of the
tax revenues will feed K-12 schools and the other 11% will go to community
colleges. If proposition 30 fails, the government will cut nearly $6 billion
from the educational budget. K-12 schools will lose $5.5 billion, and the
California State University (CSU) system will lose $250 million, and the
University of California (UC) system will lose $375 million.
Consequently, K-12
schools will be forced to eliminate 3 weeks of the school year. By cutting 3
weeks out of the school year, many working parents face the problem of where to
put their children when out of school. Some parents may have to pay the costly
rate of daycare. Also, the CSU system
will reduce classes, faculty, and admissions, which will worsen the conditions
for students. With larger classes and fewer teachers, the ability to focus and
receive proper education will be limited. With fewer admissions, students may
not be able to attend a university due to increased competition.
As financial problems
arise, California State University trustees have been thinking of ways to cope
with the budget. If a tax measure from either proposition 30 or 38 fails, CSU
trustees plan to raise tuition 5% next year (Rivera). Although tuition has been
significantly increasing over the past decade, students will have to bear more tuition
expenses to attain college education. Chancellor Charles B. Reed states that if
either tax measure fails, roughly 20,000 college students will be denied
admission; 5,500 class sections will be cut, and 1,500 faculty and staff will
also be cut (Rivera). With so many cuts, educational value will degrade.
Students will be limited to receiving aid in their studies, which will make
education more demanding and difficult. Class and faculty cuts will clearly
limit admissions for prospective students. From the failure of proposition 30,
the UC system will also carry out financial solutions that will reduce UC
admissions. UC officials are seeking to raise the admissions of out-of-state
students from 10% to 15% or 20% (Gordon). Non-Californian students pay tuition
of an additional $23,000 a year. The additional tuition rate for out-of-state
students will help solve budget issues, but because it decreases local
admissions, it rejects the UC goal of educating Californians. UC regents are
also planning several other ways to gather money: holding more classes in
summer, boosting online education, and leasing parking facilities to private
operators and hiking parking fees. Sherry Lansing, the UC regents chairwoman,
even proposed to cut film studies departments to only 1 location at UCLA. The
UC strategies to resolve their budget impairs a student’s learning
opportunities. UC system President Mark G. Yudof describes the tough financial scene:
“There are no simple solutions. There are only difficult, complex ones.” Both
CSU and UC sytems can greatly benefit from proposition 30.
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