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Local academics believe that the University of California system is on the verge of collapse due to constant spending cuts. Even if officials approve Governor Brown’s proposed tax increase, a number of education programs and departments will have to shut down. For a long time, many thought that California had the best public university system in the USA. UCLA and UC Berkeley are among the top 25 American schools, but the situation has deteriorated. According to faculty, the schools have to admit more students or cut programmes and downsize staff. Even though the level of education is going down, tuition fees are going up, as the universities are underfinanced. According to Nathan Brostrom, Executive Vice President for Business Operations at the UC Office of the President, the chief administrative officer of the University of California, the state’s higher education system is enduring a severe financial crisis. The budget of schools is still at the 2007 level, whilst the number of students is growing. University staff said that the lack of funding hampers long-term planning.
Funding was the main reason of a conflict between California authorities and taxpayers. Governor Jerry Brown proposed to increase taxes to fund education, but taxpayers weren’t happy with this. If the University of California system collapses, it will negatively affect the whole country. First, UC alumnae are top professionals all over the country. At the same time, high tuition fees will frustrate young people, spurring them on to take to the streets. High tuition is a burning problem for all of America. Student loans are bigger than any other kind of loans, leading to long-lasting burdens for students. Even President Obama said that he and his wife only paid off their loans some eight years ago. Higher tuition and lower education quality will result in more young protesters. Last April, several large American cities saw protests marking the so-called One Trillion Day when the total of student loans across the country reached one trillion dollars.
American authorities are quite imprudent in their crackdowns on student demonstrations. California was the epicentre of police violence targeted against students and youngsters, namely a crackdown that injured a 26-year-old Iraq War veteran amidst the dispersal of a peaceful rally with tear gas. Federal and New York authorities spy on Muslim students. Such methods will only undermine the trust of young people, who are traditionally some of the most active members of the society. Nevertheless, the government still has faith that these measures will work, failing to notice that the country is on the verge of public collapse.
4 June 2012
Vladimir Gladkov
Voice of Russia World Service
http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_06_04/77010659/
Editor’s Note:
Let’s keep it simple. If Wafflin’ Willy and the Magic Gotchies Brigade take the White House, expect them to slash federal aid to education to free up funds for warmongering, prisons, and fancy toys for the DoD (generally overpriced and usually cranky on ops). After all, Willy said that you could go to your parents for a loan… he did, after all. Oh, I forgot… most Americans aren’t gazillionaires like George Romney. We don’t have the money to do such… so, in Willy’s way of thinking, “Go wash dishes… college is for the respectable people in society. If you can’t pay for it, you can’t get it. If you were any good, you’d be as affluent as we are”. Trust me, that IS their attitude.
The present system sucks… it’s the frying pan. However, Willy’s solution is to throw people into the fire… they don’t count, in any case, “They’re not Mormons; they don’t count as human beings”. You forget that Willy’s an unrepentant member of an unhinged cult at your own peril (Reformed Egyptian, indeed!)…
BMD
16 December 2012. A Picture IS Worth a Thousand Words… “For-Fee Schools… The Shame of Russia”
Tags: Communist Party of the RF, demonstrations, Education, KPRF, peaceful demonstration, political commentary, political demonstrations, politics, Russia, Russian student, Russians, students
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This is a KPRF-led student demonstration against tuition and school fees. Let’s keep it simple… at present, the only criterion for getting into many universities and institutes (VUZs) is ability to learn, NOT ability to pay. Of course, there are those who use blat to get in, but they’d thrive in a for-pay scheme as well… perhaps, they’d do even better, sadly enough. The Western style of paying for one’s education out of one’s own pocket is a blatant attempt to keep the better venues of education solely for the Affluent Effluent (or for those judged sufficiently pliable and “thankful”). There’s no need of that in Russia. However, I think that the corner’s been turned, and Russians are sceptical of anything Western. In any case, the Church is more at ease with a Soviet-style state educational system than with an oligarch-run private educational corporation. You see, most commies are believers; most moneygrubbing zapadniki aren’t… that’s a no-brainer for the Church. Keep education open for all… that’s fair in the social sense and god-pleasing in the religious sense. As for Russian analogues of English “public schools”… the less said, the better…
BMD