It’s not a giant secret among people that know me that I really dislike the state of the State of California. Fairly frequently people ask me why I don’t like California. The following items are a perfect example of what is wrong with the state. Am I really the only person that sees the connection between the dots in the stories below?
College costs throughout the country have been soaring, but that’s another article all in itself. Maybe next time I write something I will explain why the United States. Most people dismiss the high cost of tuition by saying people just have to be more determined, they should give up a latte or two per week, work a second job, or not waste their money on material items. Other people just don’t care because they don’t have children or their children have finished school. Many other people just explain away the high cost of a college education in America with the following statement, “It’s just the cost of doing business. College educated people earn higher incomes, they’ll be able to afford the education costs.”
This week the trustees for the California State University system voted to approve a 12% increase in student tuition fees (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/07/cal-state-trustees-committee-approves-12-tuition-hike.html) . Then they turned around and voted to give the new President of San Diego State University a $100K salary increase (http://www.10news.com/news/28498537/detail.html) . Another news story now reports that the cost of a California State University education has doubled, just to be completely clear that’s 100% more than the same education would cost a student way back in the year 2007 (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/07/13/MNA51K9JOE.DTL). So in only a short four year period the cost of a California State University education has doubled. Have the salaries available to a graduate of these institutions gone up that much? I would be willing to bet money that they have not. In fact, the State of California has one of the highest unemployment rates in the entire nation.
The story gets even better my friends. A recent article from the Los Angeles Times reported that at most California Universities and College the very well paid professors are not even doing the teaching. The actual teaching for the students paying these increased tuition costs is being contracted out to part time teaching staff using student assistants (http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/15/opinion/la-oe-riley-teaching-20110615). Is it really that hard to connect the dots that they raise tuition costs then spend more money? When was the last time you decided in your personal budget at home to save money by spending more?
This entire mess is a perfect example of the reasons I am completely exhausted with the State of California. The multiple systems within California seem to be stuck in this process of spending more money than they have just because its “California” and then continue to raise fees, taxes, prices, etc. to cover the excess. When will the residents of California wake up and start to push back? When will the residents of California start to demand a change? It might be possible that many Californians have woken up, however they have had the fight beaten out of them. But have found a solution, they leave California. Here is a link to a great article that explains the on going trend in California (http://www.newgeography.com/content/001925-if-california-is-doing-so-great-why-are-so-many-leaving). The article details that more people have left California every year since 1990 than entered the state. It could be possible that at this point that the people who could have changed California for the better have decided to concede the battle and move elsewhere.
I suppose the situation in California really just validates one of my favorite quotes of all time. Margret Thatcher who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom once stated, ”The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money to spend.”
Thanks for listening.
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