California dreaming…of a huge fee increase?

A change of pace from the usual combination travelogue/update from abroad, but circumstances demanded a virtual “letter to the editor.” What better place to share it than here?

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University of California, Santa Barbara. The Alma Mater...

Dear Editor:

I said I wouldn’t write this.  At least not just six weeks into into our experiment living abroad.

We got lucky. Sold our little place in the canyon, albeit on the “other side of the hill”,  before the market collapsed. I was at the LA office of a successful communications/PR firm and doing work that I was very proud of. But make no mistake, business was tough.  So when the opportunity to move to Copenhagen and work on the upcoming UN Climate Conference came around we went for it.  My wife is from here, and the chance for our two little ones to experience life abroad and spend some time with their “other” family in Denmark was too much to pass up.

Far from ditching home, I embrace all things LA and Southern California.  My friends laugh when I tweet, text, and blog about the Dodgers or Lakers at 4:00 in the morning.    Between IPhone apps, live broadcasts online, and the omnipresent ESPN you don’t miss a pitch or even the occasional Adam Morrison sighting. Thankfully, I don’t get the transcripts from the McCourt debacle. But I could if I wanted.

I wake up at 6:00 a.m and read the mobile version of the LA Times, and the folks at LA Observed provide an endless and entertaining stream of commentary and content on what is happening at home.  It is almost like being there.

But more and more, what I read scares me.  It wasn’t a shock when the State announced that it was another $21 billion in the hole. Years of poor decision making and planning in Sacramento, dwindling revenues due to the recession, legislation via ballot initiative that has allowed special interests to permanently earmark funding for pet programs, and of course, the granddaddy of them all Prop 13, which not only tied the State’s hands by dramatically reducing its income but handcuffed it by requiring an impossible 2/3 vote of both legislative houses to raise revenues.

So the constant drumbeat of bad news from Sacramento and City Hall doesn’t surprise me.  But what touched me in a way that I didn’t expect was the news that the UC regents raised fees by 32 percent.

It freaks me out – a technical term of course – because it speaks to my past as well as and our future.  As a product of LAUSD as well as the UC system I owe much to California and the system that was created in the 1960’s.  It provided me a top-flight education and tremendous opportunity. The whole idea of the California Plan for Higher Education was that the State has a vested interest in educating its most qualified students with as few financial barriers as possible.  It worked, and made our system the envy of most around the world.

As a UC student in the 80’s I vividly remember a tuition hike of just over 10% and the outrage it caused on campus.  It raised our fees from somewhere around $330 to $373 per quarter. With the new tuition hikes mandatory fees for the 2010-11 academic year would be $10,302 for residents. Add in around $16,000 per year for room, board and books and we’re talking around $26,000 per year. My kids are 6 and 4 years old, so at that rate when they are college-ready we will be paying…well forget it, my UC education wasn’t that good.

Are things better over here? Basically, yes. I don’t need a car because we get anywhere we need to go by train, bus, bike, or even water taxi.  There is universal pre-school and classes are taught by caring dedicated teachers who are paid well. The city is remarkably clean, largely powered by alternative energy, and there is really no such thing as homelessness. But it is way too cold.

Are we going to return home?  Of course.  On its best days California, and especially Los Angeles, is a place of unbelievable beauty and opportunity.  Despite it all we wouldn’t want our family to be anywhere else.  So we are planning to come home in March.  But maybe we’ll stay here just a little longer and see what it’s like when things warm up a bit.

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