As students across California gather signatures for the student-led ballot initiative Tuition Relief Now, an identical bill is making its way through the Legislature.
On March 25, the Higher Education committee in Sacramento voted to approve Assembly Bill 2372, the College Affordability Act of 2008. The Taxation and Revenue Committee will hear the bill on Monday, April 28.
The language on the bill was identical to what was on the ballot. If passed, the law would generate more than $2 billion in revenue for public education in California by imposing a one-percent tax increase on individual incomes that exceed $1 million.
According to Section 1, Article 3.5 of the College Affordability Act of 2008, areas eligible for funding include, "student instructional materials, new technology, student scholarships and grants, libraries, campus safety improvements, and faculty salaries."
In Section 1, Article 3.5 of the College Affordability Act of 2008, "education is the foundation of our society and maximum efforts should be made to help all students attend college." It also declares that the state of California "has a historical commitment to making higher education accessible and affordable for all eligible students." However, since "student tuition fees…have almost doubled in the past six years," it has made it "much more difficult for California families to send their children to college."
These funds will help mitigate student fees, especially now that the California State University (CSU) budget for fiscal year 2008/2009 is being cut by $386 million. Furthermore, the bill also states that in a recent study released by the Public Policy Institute of California, "Eighty-four percent of residents, an overwhelming share, believe college affordability is a problem."
Carrie Schaden, student representative of Prioritization Task Force and College and Natural Resources & Sciences representative, said cuts in funding and a bigger population means that there will be bigger classes and limited options in education.
"I pay tuition and I invest in my education," Schaden said. "When the government pulls out funding, I'm getting less for paying more."
To counteract this, Schaden said, Tuition Relief Now is helping to stop the state from damaging the accessibility to education. Sarah Shoenberger, student intern of the California Faculty Associations (CFA) and president of Student for Fair, Affordable, Accessible, and Reliable Education (FAARE), said she is impressed with how the legislators have responded by turning the ballot into an Assembly Bill.
"If the ballot initiative fails, the momentum can be focused somewhere else," Shoenberger said.
Shoenberger said that one of her concerns with the bill is that student fees would be tied to a price index, meaning fees would fluctuate depending on the economy. However, Shoenberger said a good point was brought to her attention. "If inflation is above 10 percent in five years, we are going to have more serious things to worry about than higher education."
Mathew Herrera, student organizer for Tuition Relief Now, said although the main focus of Tuition Relief Now is to gather 434,000 signatures by April 17, this dual approach to tuition relief will give the bill a greater chance of making it on the November ballot.
"As we're getting signatures, we hope the legislature is passing this [bill] through the committees," Herrera said. "No matter how it gets passed, whether with the ballot or the legislation, our goal is to get it passed." Valeria Fike-Rosales, lead organizer for Tuition Relief Now, said that people began to ask why Tuition Relief Now didn't use the Legislature.
Rosales said there have been many failed attempts but that they were never successful. Tuition Relief Now decided to give the Legislature another chance to be a champion for the students, Rosales said.
Part of the problem past attempts to use the legislature failed may be that few people write letters to their district about the problems in public education.
"More people write letters about saving natural parks than saving the public school system," Herrera said. Herrera said that one way students can help is by writing to their district in California.
Another way for students to get involved is to lobby republican assemblymembers, such as Assemblymen Todd Spitzer, Chuck DeVore and George Plescia.
Students and parents can visit the Web pages of these assembly members to see the list of cities they represent.
"Talking to people on our side is a waste of energy since they already agree with us," Herrera said.
"We need to identify students and parents who can e-mail them or lobby them directly during the march on April 21," Herrera said.
Finally, Herrera said that students should also engage California State Assemblywoman Patty Berg. "She is a very influential legislator," Herrera said. "She holds a lot of clout with the people at the Tax and Revenue Committee."
Shoenberger said she is excited to see where Tuition Relief Now will go. "TRN has run a hell of a campaign and deserves a lot of credit for that," she said, "I do hope that this allows them to become a more powerful and well-funded lobbying force in the future."
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