2008 Woodie Awards
Legislature responds to students, discusses tuition woes
Karla Rivas
Issue date: 4/9/08 Section: Campus
"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.
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.
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