Response to CSU's fee increases

I realize that many of you must share my frustration at the raising of student fees for fall 2011. I’ve been working full-time on top of going to school full-time, trying to save enough money to pay tuition without taking out loans. Although I have successfully managed to do that in the past despite continued fee increases, I have failed for this coming semester. I’m forced to take on debt. Still, I plan to continue working so that I can at least minimize the debt: I can support myself, at least, and only take out loans to cover tuition. Of course, even that will suffice to distract me from my studies. I know many students are in similar positions. I don’t know your stories, but I, for one, am exhausted. Last semester I took a full courseload on top of working five nights a week. The only nights that I had off from work were the two nights that my seminars ran too late for me to work. I worked as hard as I possibly could--sacrificing any semblance of a social life or personal time--and still came up short.

I worked my way through a BA at UC Berkeley, and am about to work my way through an MA at SFSU. I had to take long stretches of time off from Berkeley to work and save up enough money to go back to school. The tuition has more than doubled since I started. Even when I was at school, I had to split my focus between work and school. My undergraduate transcript looks questionable because I have long stretches of time off punctuated by a year in school here, a year in school there. I feel as though I missed out on a big part of the college experience: feeling like I fully belong at the university, that I am a part of its community. I’ve always felt sort of like an outsider because I was taking such a non-traditional path through university. Upon reflection, I realize that that instinctive emotional response has hampered my willingness to fully participate with the time that I do have. That ends now. I’m determined to finish the MA program here in a timely manner, which is why I’m going to take on debt this year.

I am a graduate of the California public school system. I went to a community college while working full time. I managed to do well enough to earn admission to the flagship UC. I worked full time there as well, and alternated between working and going to school. I am now about to pursue an MA in the CSU system. I am grateful for the outstanding education I have received in California’s public secondary and tertiary educational systems. In particular, my teachers have been absolutely phenomenal, and a few key people have made all the difference in motivating me not to give up, and to keep pursuing my (perhaps irrational) dream of becoming a teacher myself.

As such, I am incredibly frustrated when I hear of proposals to cut teachers’ pay and benefits, to increase class sizes and workloads, to eradicate tenure lines or worse, whole departments. Teachers and faculty are already underpaid, overworked and overstretched.

How should they take mandatory furlough days? Should they cut time from lectures or preparing for classes, or advising students, reducing the quality of instruction? Should they cut time from administrative service? (Can they?) Or should they cut their own research, for which they already have too little time? Given the unattractive options, faculty will almost certainly continue to work just as hard as they always have. Furlough days are just a cut in pay. Teachers and faculty are intelligent people who could make more money in other industries, but they choose to invest in and educate the future labor force.

How does it serve students to increase class sizes, to reduce individualized attention, to ensure that potential mentors are stretched thin? The solution is not to hire more temporary faculty. Adjunct and lecturer positions simply are not equivalent to tenure-track positions. The pay is typically lower, the workload higher, and they have neither academic freedom nor as much research time. That such positions are temporary means that adjuncts are not necessarily familiar with and invested in the university culture and community. Moreover, the nature of the academic job market is such that a successful job search, even for a temporary position, is an all-consuming activity that means less time available to prepare for classes or mentor students. It also makes it more difficult for students to develop relationships with mentors if there is constant turnover among the faculty. It’s worse for both students and faculty.

The tired refrain from administrators defending their raises in the face such cuts says that administrative salaries must be competitive in order to attract the best people. If that is true, then the same applies to the salaries of teachers and faculty.

I recognize that, given the slashing of educational spending from the budget, California’s tertiary public education systems had no choice but to raise student fees. In their position I would have no doubt done the same.

My anger and frustration are directed at the legislature and the governor for cutting educational spending, and at the voters that support such measures. They say the cuts will be temporary. But what of the students turned away from college this year? Will they ever get their lives and careers back on track? What of the students who cannot afford to pay for school this year, who must either choose to drop out or take on debt? The cuts had better be temporary. Many voters are opposed to raising taxes, or will vote no on the proposed November legislation to restore educational spending.

I would surmise that a vast majority of Californians know a student or teacher. We are your family members, your friends, your neighbors, your coworkers, your former teachers and the people who make your morning coffee. I tell you: we are struggling.

California is the nation’s most populous state. We students are the future not only of California, but of the country at large. People tout the importance of the knowledge economy. What kind of knowledge are we gaining under such conditions? How will we have the time to creatively engage with problems when every free moment is spent working to pay for school? We are distracted and exhausted. Our generation has been left a legacy of powerful collective problems to overcome if we are to survive as a species, much less as a political and social community. The Greatest Generation sacrificed much for the country and their children, building a large public infrastructure that has benefited those that followed. Yet, that aging infrastructure requires upkeep. Today’s taxpayers benefited from that infrastructure, used its resources, and are now fighting tooth and nail to ensure that they don’t have to pay anything back to maintain it.

To those that refuse to raise taxes despite the obvious need to do so, I say: shame on you. Everything that you have, everything that you have done, was made possible by those who came before you. Did you attend a public school? Drive on a public road? Create a business that took advantage of publicly educated workers and a publicly funded physical infrastructure? Now you are denying the same opportunities to the next generation—to your own children. I don’t agree with everything the government does or particularly enjoy funding everything that they do. I don’t think anyone does, and they’d be incoherent if they did. Still, I recognize the need to pay taxes. Sure, it would be awesome if we magically had public schools, national parks, roads, and a military without having to pay a single cent, but that’s just completely unrealistic. I make less money than the top percentile, yet I pay a higher tax rate and sacrifice a greater percentage of my income. Yet I gladly pay taxes, and support even higher taxes. Perhaps it is because I can more easily see from my humble perspective just how critical our needs are.

But it’s not just that you should be ashamed at your short-sightedness, your selfishness, your lack of compassion and gratitude. Our futures are entwined, you see, and so you are really just hurting yourself. Consumer spending is a major component of the economy, yet future consumers are graduating from school under the oppressive weight of student debt. We aren’t going to be able to purchase homes and cars and goods in the same numbers that we did before. We won’t be able to afford to raise families and create businesses in the face of a crumbling public infrastructure. We won’t even be able to save for our future, because all of our resources are devoted to paying down our debt. Maybe the wealthiest will be able to abandon this country, to pick up and move elsewhere. Yet many of the same persons who are railing against taxes ironically do so under the banner of patriotism. Loving this country means sacrificing for it, and it’s time you put your money where your mouth is. You previous generations will be dependent upon ours to get a return on your investments. Do you want someone to buy your home, or take over your successful business, or pay into Medicare or Social Security? How about the value of your stock assets in your individual retirement accounts? Need buyers in the stock market? Who is going to take care of you in your old age? Who is going to develop new medical technologies to make your lives more comfortable? My generation needs the opportunities that are fast being closed to us. Our success or failure is yours as well.

Everyone is worried about the economy. People think that raising taxes will hurt the economy, but that’s simply false. Every dollar the government spends on unemployment insurance has a GDP multiplier of 2. This is because poor people, like graduate students, go out and buy things they need like food and soap. The top percentile has enough money to already purchase everything that they need. Giving them extra money does not provide the same incentive to spend. There is a much lower rate of return in GDP terms for additional dollars allocated at the top via lower top marginal tax rates. Thus, in terms of the overall health of the economy, it is far more important to benefit those at the bottom than those at the top. A more even distribution also makes the economy more resilient in the face of crises. When those at the bottom are overburdened with debt, how can we possibly spend? Tax cuts don’t have the same economic punch. In my own case, I know that any additional money I earn I will immediately use to pay down my student debt. I won’t use a tax cut to go out and spend, thus providing a boost to the economy.

We absolutely must raise taxes. Invest in me. Invest in my generation. Invest in future generations. Give us the education we need to compete and succeed and create and discover.

Students and teachers, spread the word and use your social networks. Talk to everyone you know about your own story, about how important funding education is to you. Let’s make this an unavoidable issue on the November ballot.