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Public worried about cost, access to college

November 12th, 2009, 5:00 am · 22 Comments · posted by Gary Robbins, science writer-editor

csuf.0224.la03More than 60 percent of the public thinks that California’s public colleges and universities are doing well at educating students, but they’re worried about the affordability of higher education and the effect of recent budget cuts, says a new survey by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC).

The survey of 2,502 adult Californians, conducted from Oct. 20 to Nov. 3, also revealed that the majority of respondents think that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state legislature are doing a poor job overseeing public higher education. People were especially critical of the legislature, with only 18 percent approving of the way lawmakers have dealt with issues involving colleges and universities.

In a news release, PPIC president and CEO Mark Baldassare said, “Californians hold their colleges and universities in high esteem. But they’re worried about what’s going to happen next. They’re struggling with a crisis in the economy and a crisis of confidence in their leaders.”

Orange County is home to 11 public schools — UC Irvine, Cal State Fullerton and nine community colleges. The schools serve more than 125,000 students and represent the three tiers of public higher education in California. All have been subjected to student fee increases, lay-offs or furloughs and program cuts due to state budget problems. The UC Board of Regents is expected to raise fees by an additional 30-32 percent next week. (UCI students to protest fee hikes.)

Click here to read the entire PPIC survey (which has a sampling error of plus/minus 2 percent). Here are some highlights:

Quality of education/performance

  • 49 percent of the respondents said the University of California system is doing a good job and 13 percent said the system is doing excellent (a combined 62 percent)
  • 52 percent said the California State University system is doing a good and 9 percent said its doing excellent (61 percent)
  • 52 percent said the California Community College system is doing good and 13 percent said 13 percent said excellent (65 percent)

Taxes, tuition, student fees, enrollment

  • 68 percent are unwilling to increase student fees. Solid majorities across parties, regions, and demographic groups occur
  • 56 percent are unwilling to pay higher taxes. Although 56 percent of Democrats are willing to pay higher taxes for this purpose, 58 percent of independents and 7 percent of Republicans are not
  • 62 percent are very concerned, and 27 percent somewhat concerned, about increasing tuition or fees.
  • 57 percent are very concerned and 29 percent are somewhat concerned about the idea of reducing the number of students admitted to offset budget cuts. (The figures were the same regarding concern about cutting course offerings).

Other key findings

  • 46 percent of parents said they do not have enough financial aid information, 38 percent said they have just enough
  • 54 percent said it is very important, and 23 percent it is somewhat important, for the colleges and universities to have racial diversity
  • 66 percent said that college is necessary

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 22 Comments

  • ocavatar says:
    November 12, 2009 at 8:09 am

    The Unions are calling for increased wages, the professors, already overpaid and underworked get more than adequate incomes. So why not increase tuition? Perhaps by charging full tuition to all the non-resident students (meaning the college should check citizenship) the colleges might get more income. Stop the freebies to the entitled students and treat everyone fairly as the law requires, then there might be more funding available.

    • The hopper says:
      November 13, 2009 at 9:48 am

      I agree with you aon a few issues except the union issue, unions are there to ask for competitive wages, this keeps the best employees home and reduces the chances of what has happened to the U.S. in regards to Home Depot workers.

      Yes some profesors are over paid, but the reality of this is that the Administration is way over paid and that is where you should be taking a stand. I would like to see readers demand for the executives and superintendents of schools to begin with a 10% cut effective immediately. Then any need for other budget cuts would be seen as necessary.
      You digg?

    • mark says:
      November 13, 2009 at 2:13 pm

      Here’s a funny little public access tool. I can’t seem to find the link at UCOP, but the OCR picked up on it in 2007.

      http://www.ocregister.com/news/salary-173534-uc-irvine.html?appSession=981206571663498&RecordID=&PageID=2&PrevPageID=2&cpipage=1&CPIsortType=desc&CPIorderby=Gross_Pay

      That link takes you to the salary information for all workers at UCI for that year. Of course, I started it at the bottom to show that there are plenty of workers who are not overpaid. In fact, if you click on gross pay from top to bottom, you’ll see some very large numbers. But if you continue through the pages, aside from the poles, you’ll notice that most professors do not make $600,000. In fact, the professors who make that much money are PhD’s in medical fields who are actually doing RESEARCH. Even then, the highest salary is only $191,000. I’m sure your own Doctor makes that much, and he isn’t doing research. What are the extra fees that more than double their gross salary? I don’t know. I don’t even care.

      Aside from medical personnel, you’ll notice the next highest paid are administrators. Go figure. What research are they doing?

      Avatar, lastly, I’m not sure where you get that professors are underworked. Perhaps you’ve never been to college. As a student, it’s pretty annoying that my professors who instruct small class sizes (20, but have several classes a day) can’t get a paper returned back to me in less than a week. Sheesh, all those emails I get from my professors at 11pm at night must mean they NEVER take work home with them. It’s soooo annoying to receive emails from the same professors on weekends too. They must have sooo much time on their hands that they are soo bored on weekends that they have to grade essays and tests at home instead of the office.

  • Gary Robbins says:
    November 12, 2009 at 8:24 am

    What do you think of the survey?

  • Anteater09 says:
    November 12, 2009 at 9:29 am

    Voters think the California public higher education system should be better funded, but they don’t think they should be funded from taxes or from student fees. Where should the funds come from? Door-to-door begging? Bake sales? Car washes? Kissing booths?

    • Payroll Admin says:
      November 12, 2009 at 4:43 pm

      Ha ha ha ha!! Creative!

    • Ramos says:
      November 19, 2009 at 10:23 am

      The surveyors contradict themselves, on one hand valuing the education system and on the other hand unwilling to pay for it. The reason for this: it’s possible to have yesterday’s educated students without paying for the future students.

      The funds could come from:
      - in-class advertisements and renaming of university halls (Target Hall, Walmart Classroom, Best-Buy Hall)

      - advertisements on campus (already done somewhat, expensive soda machines, credit cards, leases to fast-food chains, etc.)

      - charge companies who hire B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. educated students

      - required expensive textbooks (already done)

      - put atheletics programs on self-support

      - remove all programs that don’t strictly educate the enrolled students from higher education (student services, student union, sports, athletic programs, public events, K-12 events)

  • ww says:
    November 13, 2009 at 10:36 am

    Funny . . . my post didn’t appear.

  • UCI Dad says:
    November 13, 2009 at 11:00 am

    It has been reported in previous articles by Gary Robbins that indeed UC
    staff making over 150k have received pay cuts. (as well as other pay bands) There was a sliding scale pay band salary cut schedule that graduated higher for those in the six figure range. I seem to recall that it was something in the 8% to 10% range.
    This is all fine, except that the unions are protected, receiving silly penalty pay for such things as getting phone calls at home. (2 hrs. compensation) Unfortunately, there was a time for unions, but they have gone too far and have become much too powerful. Until these contracts are renegotiated to reflect the economic reality, cuts will go only so far.

  • ray says:
    November 13, 2009 at 11:33 am

    it’s time to stop the government subsidies of the colleges and to make the students pay their way. then and only then will the students appreciate what they have and then the California government can get out of the education business. double the fees and watch the unappreciative leave just like the illegals left when the job market turned south.

    • mark says:
      November 13, 2009 at 2:23 pm

      ray,

      only 17% percent of funding comes from the state. please try again.

      there are over 20,000 students at UCI. if you had gone to college, or have children looking into it, you’ll know it isn’t easy to get into. thinking that all or most of the students do not appreciate their education is an ignorant stance to take if they’ve had to work hard enough to get into it. one simply does not stumble into UCI.

      many students DO pay for their education. many are working several lousy part time jobs, and they know enough that unskilled service sector jobs are not a way to advance in life, hence their desire for an expensive piece of paper that can lead them into a meaningful career. look into the average GPA for students at UCI and it’ll tell you that students are very hard working. hard workers understand the cost and effort that goes into their education. it is valued, and something that is valued is never under-appreciated.

      lastly, there are dozens at UCI, like myself, who have already paid for their education. you’re welcome for the service we have provided for you.

      • UCI Dad says:
        November 13, 2009 at 9:12 pm

        “Mark”
        It appears as though some of the posters here are either poorly educated, are preaching conjecture, or are so financially secure that reality has no meaning to them.
        At UCI the bar was raised even higher for the freshman class.
        My son is at UCI, and he has a friend that works 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.
        and carries a full class load. There are others doing the same thing.
        It appears to me that there are some very dedicated students at UCI that aren’t “expecting” anything from the government. They are doing everything in their human ability to get a good education.

    • ww says:
      November 13, 2009 at 6:50 pm

      Yeah! We can start at 1st grade!!! That way by the time they are 10, they will all be ready to work in factories.

  • former paralegal says:
    November 21, 2009 at 6:21 pm

    With the economy down and unemployment up, college enrollment is up, and that includes enrollment in costly vocational schools or university extension programs that prepare students for jobs that don’t pay as well as jobs, or careers rather,. that can be obtained with a bachelors degree. A perfect example of just such a job is paralegal. For some unknown reason, paralegal and legal secretary carry a reputation for being good pay.

    These are dead end jobs. There is no upward mobility. You can’t get promoted anywhere because there is no ladder of success to climb. These jobs require all of the hard work and dedication that it requires in order to get promoted thru the ranks and make it to a high-profile corporate position with a company; yet there is no long-run payoff for that effort because a paralegal or legal secretary has no where to be promoted.

    It’s the attorney who has a lot to show for the paralegal’s hard work, not the paralegal. He can’t run his practice without the aide of a paralegal. Attorneys drive luxury cars, own a huge homes, travel to exotic places, and own vacation or rental homes. This could not be accomplished without having an assistant doing all the work; yet the assistant won’t get paid enough to own her own condo.

    It is often required for the legal secretary or paralegal to put in a lot of overtime, including working weekends. It may be worth it for an attorney to spend his entire weekend at the office if he’s billing is client $400/hour. The attorney has an incentive to waste a weekend away in his office because it’s the client’s money that buys the cars, home, vacations, and rentals. The legal assistant’s incentive to work weekends is to avoid being fired to prevent becoming homeless and to keep her Honda from getting repo’d.