I grew up in Cali. This kind of idiocy is an example of why I left.

On the other side of the spectrum, I heard a discussion yesterday on BBC World Service about the UK's debate over university tuition. One participant was a French university professor, who said that tuition in France is currently 200 Euros (what is that, $250?) A YEAR, and that the government hasn't been able to consider raising it since tuition was introduced in 1986 for fear of public outrage and student rioting.

Maybe we should subcontract democracy-building in Iraq to the French.

All "western" social democracies (incl. Aust and NZ) have inexpensive or free higher education.

There are some downsides to this. There definitely is an incentive, especially in places like Holland where education is (or was) really free, for a "professional student" class to form that never really does anything until they finally get kicked out.

But the upsides outweight the downsides. You end up with a much better educated population, meaning a better labor pool and a more knowledgable voters.

(Oh ... maybe that last part explains why the Republicans opposed cheap higher education. :D )

Seriously, the difference between the US and the other western countries is deeply engrained in the cultures. The other countries see the opportunity for higher education as a general benefit to society ... "we all win when the populace is highly educated". In the US the dominant view is that education is a personal benefit -- something that the individual gains from but not society as a whole. Hence the view that "if I don't have kids, I don't want to pay taxes for education."

Slightly OT: in the US the likelihood of voting Republican increases with your education level through college, but in grad school it reverses and most people with advanced degrees vote Democrat.

Oh, this is just the tip of the iceberg. That cut is just CSU. UC's is good for another few thousand undergrads (link). And UC grad school fees are going up 40%. How many will that knock out?

(links to my site)

The silly theory is that the community colleges will be a cheap place to park the kids from CSU. Two problems: 1) there are not funds proposed to cover this increase, and 2) CCs already turned away over 100,000 people last year. (link)

Did I mention that Arnis is eliminating the program to help foster kids get into college? (link) It seems that 10% acceptance and 3% graduation rates are too high. (link) Did I also mention that he is eliminating the outreach programs that help poor high school kids figure out how to escape their conditions? (link)

I could go on. Iceberg and all.

Oh yeah, one last thing, Arnis stuck has an accounting trick in his budget that cuts estate taxes by $1 billion. (link - this last site is a real jewel, btw)