CA Students Protest Having To Pay Tuition

Students in the University of California system have been vocal recently protesting tuition hikes. What seems to elude them is the fact that their education is being subsidized by hardworking taxpayers, and those subsidies are drying up.

"Tax bases narrow as marginal rates go up and people and businesses struggle to make a go of it. Some fail; others move to Texas. Either way, the result is what California has been seeing: higher unemployment, slower economic growth, and less tax revenue to fund the state's public institutions.

When things get as bad as they have in California, students whose education is underwritten by this tax revenue find themselves paying higher tuition—and faculty and staff may find themselves out of a job."

Spending at public and private universities has grown astronomically over the past few decades. The increased spending can be largely attributed to the US government directly and indirectly underwriting student loans, as well state government subsidizing costs.

In many ways, the recent decreased spending by states on collegiate education is a good thing, in that it should cause marginal students who shouldn't be in school anyway to drop out, get a full-time job working and to avoid taking taking on unnecessary debt related to their course work. In addition, it will force students to directly shoulder the costs of their post-secondary education.

As a taxpayer, I can perhaps be talked into subsidizing educational spending related to engineering and pre-med studies.

Where I personally draw the line is for studies related to Liberal Arts, Business Administration, Political Science, etc., which can be studied on a person's own time without having to be in a classroom paying tuition.