California lawmakers focus on CSU costs following tuition hike

This story first appeared on statehornet.com on April 27, 2017.

As students and faculty lobby the Legislature to fully fund the California State University’s budget for the upcoming academic year after the Board of Trustees approved a tuition increase, some lawmakers have prioritized other proposals aimed at lowering college costs.

The California State University Board of Trustees passed the first tuition increase in six years on March 22 with the proviso that it will not go into effect if the Legislature fills a $168 million shortfall between the CSU’s and Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget proposals.

Ryan Brown, a Sacramento State student and the vice president of legislative affairs at the California State Student Association, has joined Sac State professorChristine Miller, the chair of the CSU Academic Senate, in visiting the Capitol to persuade legislators to do just that when it votes on the state budget.

“The governor is being very fiscally conservative this year and is really the biggest obstacle,” Brown said. “I’m not incredibly optimistic that the Legislature will come through.”

Brown said that the trustees, some of whom said they did not want to raise tuition but felt they had no other choice, have not been proactive in trying to prevent the increase from taking effect.

“They haven’t been in the Capitol with students or publicizing any actions they’ve taken to push for full funding,” Brown said. “(It) seems to me that the justification for the increase is that it would put pressure on the governor — but part of that has to be the trustees putting that pressure on themselves.”

Sacramento State alumnus and Assemblyman Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, said that he didn’t support the tuition increase, but that the Legislature’s move will depend on how much money the state received from taxes this spring.

“Obviously, we’d support that if there was an unlimited pot of money but we have to evaluate how much money we have and live within our means,” McCarty said in an interview with The State Hornet.

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