Volume 29 · Number 1 · Fall 2011
Broken state: Education undermined
Dan Simmons
UC is confronting an enormous erosion of state financial support. Over the past four years, the university's state appropriation has fallen by 27.1 percent, from $3.25 billion in fiscal year 2007–08 to $2.37 billion in fiscal year 2011–12.
As a result, UC has implemented layoffs, consolidated and eliminated programs, increased class sizes, delayed faculty hiring, reduced levels and hours of service, and hiked student fees.
Dan Simmons, UC Davis law professor, tax expert and chair of the UC Academic Senate, which represents all tenure-track UC faculty, believes that California's long-term budget trend has "seriously undermined" higher education in the state.
"The annual budget stalemate makes it impossible to reliably plan for enrollment," he said.
Both UC and CSU offer admission to students and set fees in advance of the fall terms, he noted. But when the state delays on the budget and fails to provide enough funding, neither university system can simply "turn around and deny access to students already admitted."
To make higher education funding more stable and equitable, Simmons advocates an overhaul of the state's tax code—which he describes as "antiquated and dysfunctional." California could both eliminate "unfair and complicated" tax subsidies, he suggests, and at the same time lower rates while protecting higher education.
Back to "Fixing our broken state"