Every week, Mathew Herrera commits 20 hours of his own time to gather signatures on campus and around his community for the student-led Tuition Relief Now campaign.
He is one of the many students who are working on their own time to gather a total of 434,000 signatures by April 17, in order for a law to make it onto the November 2008 ballot. The law would generate more than $2 billion in revenue for public education in California by imposing a one percent tax increase on the wealthy.
The California State University (CSU) budget for fiscal year 2008/2009 is being cut by $386 million. This means that in order for CSUs to be able to fill the gap that will enable them to run efficiently with less cash, the solution is to hike student fees by 10 percent.
Tuition Relief Now is a campaign that is pushing for a bill to make student fee increases illegal. If passed, the College Affordability Act of 2008 can freeze student fees for up to five years. Under this law, any future increases can't exceed the rate of inflation in California, which means students don't have to work harder to go to school.
Herrera said student fee hikes have gone up 300 percent past the rate of inflation since 1991.
Ami Patel, lead organizer of Tuition Relief Now, said to make up the difference for the budget cuts, "this law will generate a new source of revenue created by a one percent tax on million-dollar earners, after they earn their first million."
California students, spurred by concerns over tuition costs, turned to the Greenlining Institute, a multi-ethnic public policy organization that helps disenfranchised groups. After students met with Greenlining in the summer of 2007 to discuss issues about education affordability, Greenlining decided to take steps to help the students, Herrera said.
Valeria Fike-Rosales, lead organizer of Tuition Relief Now, said, "We recently came into higher education, about a year and a half ago. "Greenlining sees students as a vulnerable population. They've been taken advantage of by student fees, predatory lending, credit cards, textbook costs and the cost of living."
Tuition Relief Now receives support materials from Greenlining, such as bright yellow Tuition Relief shirts, and an interactive website that students can log onto to learn more about the campaign, sign up to be a volunteer, help fundraise, and download an official petition, Rosales said.
Also, the ballot-initiative was written by and donated by professional lawmakers and lobbyist who have made alliances with Greenlining Action.
"Everyone knows that the ballot initiative process requires a whole lot of money," Rosales said. "The way people tend to get signatures is by hiring paid-signature gatherers, something that Tuition Relief Now isn't doing. The campaign is a volunteer effort."
Not only will higher education benefit from this law, but also K-12 and community colleges in California. "Higher education will get at least 60 percent and K-12 will get up to 40 percent of the new revenue, based on the Prop[osition] 98," Patel said.
Patel said that Greenlining is concerned about the projected budget deficit because it directly affects the communities that Greenlining serves.
The alliances who donate to Greenlining Institute do it on the basis of fighting against redlining, a bank practice that would draw on a map a red line around communities where they would not invest their money, typically low-income communities of color, Rosales said.
Greenlining does the opposite of redlining, by ensuring that banks and corporations invest into the communities they say they serve, Rosales said.
"In 30 years [Greenlining] allowed 3.4 trillion dollars to be invested in neighborhoods that have never seen that money before," Herrera said. "They create alliances with private donors and people that have made a lot of money but [who] want to make sure that every sector in California is taken care of, not just the rich."
After President Rollin Richmond gave his speech at the All-campus Budget Summit, which took place in the Kate Buchanan Room this past Monday, Herrera approached him and asked him to sign the ballot in order to give revenue to the school and stop tuition increases.
Herrera said that freezing tuition is frightening to some administrators because they want to be able to have the option to increase student fees at their disposal.
"He read it half way and said he can't support it because the tuition freeze might create a barrier in the future for funding," Herrera said.
After Herrera explained to the president that a one percent tax increase would create $2 billion in revenue, he said the president, "was still adamant that it would increase a barrier and then told me, 'I hope this doesn't end up destroying what you're trying to save.'"
Lladira Baez, an Associated Students CSSA representative, said that CSSA passed a resolution stating support for Tuition Relief Now. "We pledged to get 10,000 signatures for them," Baez said.
Baez said that there really isn't a real opposition to the ballot initiative. Herrera said Rachel Rodriguez, the other AS CSSA representative for Humboldt State, was the only member who voted against the ballot initiative in November. The only concern that was brought up, said Baez, is that fees would be tied to a price index, meaning that fees would fluctuate depending on the economy. When asked why she voted against the resolution, Rodriguez did not wish to comment on the matter.
"This initiative is one of the only alternatives that we do have if we don't get the money reallocated to CSU," Baez said. "The proposal itself is actually pretty good."
For information on how you can volunteer, contact Mathew Herrera at matthewh@tuitionreliefnow.org or visit Greenlining.org.
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