The middle class is dwindling.
Since the economic downturn, politicians have rallied behind the call to help the poor and middle classes. Political speeches are now about protecting the middle class. But, as experience has proven recently, political rhetoric about the middle class is nothing more than just that — rhetoric.
Over the past year the state Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez, an ally of students and the middle class, has worked tirelessly with the University of California Student Association and others to pass his groundbreaking Middle Class Scholarship Act. As it stood, the scholarship would have lowered fees of UC and CSU students by 60 percent while also increasing the funding for community colleges. The scholarship program would have been funded by closing a corporate tax loophole for out-of-state corporations — effectively leveling the playing field for California companies while also building a strong foundation for the economic future of the state. The middle class would have been protected and California companies would have benefited.
With an ever-shrinking middle class, cuts to the social safety net and tuition increases of over 300 percent within the past decade, the middle class has been handed an unbearable financial burden coupled with stalled economic growth. During these difficult times, California needs legislators that are willing to be stalwarts for the middle class and courageous enough to develop innovative new ideas that force the ever-growing rich and wealthy to pay their fair share.
Speaker Pérez and most of the Democrats in the legislature were inches away from reaching a deal that would have made the Middle Class Scholarship possible. Passing such a monumental piece of legislation would have demonstrated to the nation and the state that California is a serious fighter for the middle class and the American dream. But some senators failed to step up to the plate.
The Middle Class Scholarship Act fell prey to back-door deals in the late hour that never materialized. Rumors of deals around the scholarship spread throughout the capitol and in the end the Senate failed to deliver the necessary two-thirds vote necessary for its passage. One thing is clear. There were those senators that stood with students and the middle class and there were those senators who stood with out-of-state corporations. Their votes speak louder than rhetoric.
The events surrounding the vote on the Middle Class Scholarship proved one very important point. The two-thirds vote requirement for any tax increase — in this case the closing of a tax loophole — hurts the middle class. Were it not for this requirement, the Middle Class Scholarship would have passed through the senate and been on its way to the governor’s desk. But it didn’t happen. The two-thirds requirement allows the tyranny of the minority to overwhelm the rule of the majority. In this case, as in most, regular hardworking Californians pay the cost.
So how do we fix this problem, and win the fight for the middle class?
Since 2011 UCSA has worked and will continue to work in broad coalitions with legislators like Speaker Pérez and along with organizations such as the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and American Chamber of Commerce Executives on reforming the two-thirds requirement and increasing overall state revenues by closing tax loopholes that only benefit the rich and corporations.
UCSA has made thousands of calls, sent tens of thousands of letters, lobbied in Sacramento, marched with 10,000 students on the capitol and protested throughout the state against the cuts to higher education. While we have won many victories, we need to push back against the forces demanding the continuation of the current status quo. We need every student in California to join this fight for equity and be heard by those who would stifle the pleas for help from the silent majority. We need to shift the conversation away from what is right for corporations and lobbyists to what is right for Californians. We need to win this fight before we lose our middle class.
Angelica Salceda is the president of the UC Student Association.
Contact the opinion desk at [email protected]
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An argument that raising taxes will help the middle class is crazy. California is one of the highest taxed states in the nation and has the largest revenue in the nation, and yet we have all these problems with education. Instead of increasing taxes on some businesses that will continue to drive jobs out of the state, we should be lowering taxes for the companies that are in California and promote the state as a place where companies can open and add jobs. Instead California is losing population, jobs, and businesses. That means our tax base drops and so does our revenue. Our education system went from the best in the nation to near the bottom over the last several decades. You want to know what will help education in California? Do the opposite of what we have been doing for the last three decades.
California public school teachers also have the second highest average salary in the nation, second only to New York.
http://www.hjta.org/california-commentary/teachers-union-play-thug-card
Thank you for the link.
UC needs to stop using statistics that make it seem that the situation faced by middle class students is less dire than it is. A UC education is largely a free ride for students from families that make less than 80k per year and is not financially feasible for students without access to federal, state of UC grant type aid from families that make less than 120k per year. Students from families in this income range make up approximately 40% of UC eligible students in California yet account for only 8.1% of UC enrollment and probably less now that fees have substantially increased.
Yet, instead of highlighting how dire the situation is, UC now chooses to present the middle class as students from families making between 50k and 99k and students from families making between 99K and 149k and then claim that there has only been a slight change over time due to the increases in tuition and other UC policies.
From Page S-28 of UC 2012-2013 Budget…..
http://i48.tinypic.com/fvfx9e.jpg
From Page S-26 of UC 2012-2013 Budget…..
“For many years, the enrollment of students from middle income families also has remained relatively stable, at about 43% between 2000-01 and 2006-07, despite fee increases in most of those years. Since then the percentage has declined slightly, to 39% in 2009-10, which may reflect a statewide decline in middle-income families attributable to the economic recession. The University is closely monitoring this trend, together with income trends among California families generally.”
http://budget.universityofcalifornia.edu/files/2011/11/2012-13_budget.pdf
Of course it has remained steady once the income tiers are re-defined to cause it to remain steady. The overwhelming majority of UC students in the 50k -99 k middle income tier are from families making between 50k and 80k who have a free ride. In the 99k-149k tier, the overwhelming majority of UC students are from families making over 120K. The shift has been within each of these tiers, to the 50-80k free ride portion of the 50-99k tier and to the upper middle income 120k – 149k segment of the 99-149k tier.
http://i45.tinypic.com/2wcitmw.jpg
UC has chosen to redefine income tiers to ones that make no sense at all given the fact that UC and Cal Grant offer a free ride to students from families making less than 80K, which is the rationale for the 80-120k middle income tier in the 2011 UCOP graph at the link directly above.
UC can make a UC education more affordable for the middle class by eliminating the “Return to Aid” forced contribution that comprises 1/3 of state resident tuition. UC needs to acknowledge that its policies have seriously affected the middle class and stop with this obfuscatory nonsense of redefining income tiers to make it seem that a UC education is still possible for the middle class and that the middle class has not suffered from UC’s policies including “Return to Aid” and admission policies that favor applicants from low performing schools. There is no reason that a student from a family that earns between 80k and 120k and is priced out of a UC education without taking out an overly burdensome dollar volume of loans should have to take out an even higher dollar volume of loans to make a $4,000/year contribution to the education of lower income students so UC can offer the lower income students a free ride. There is a similar contribution included in residence hall fees but a UC student is not forced to pay that contribution direclty since he does not have to live in UC residence halls; however in Berkeley and other UC communities, exorbitant residence hall fees drive private housing costs higher, so he still is being negatively affected even if not living in the residence halls. This is a completely absurd situation.
Once UC leaves the business of redistributing the income and assets of student families through “Return to Aid” and there is no more free ride but a cost associated with a UC education for all, there will be a shift from lower class to middle class enrollment. This will have the effect of lowering the massive costs of Cal Grant in two ways.
1) The lower number of students receiving Cal Grant will lower costs.
2) The amount of each Cal Grant will be reduced since UC tuition will have decreased by 1/3.
This will allow the state to shift this money back to UC to lower UC tuition costs even further which in turn will make a UC education affordable to even more middle class students. Again this will further decrease the number of lower income students.
Of course, this is never going to happen of UC’s own accord since for reasons that are a complete mystery, UC administrators seem to be of the notion that students from lower income first generation families are entitled to a free ride UC education and there is little concern with the negative effect this has had on students from middle income families. UC even attempts to conceal how damaging its “Return to Aid” transfer of income scheme has been on students from middles income families.
This can happen by means of a ballot proposition that makes it unlawful for UC to collect tuition to redistribute as financial aid. Once UC can no longer collect tuition above actual costs, its whole financial aid scheme devised to offer free rides to lower income students unravels. Cal Grant costs lower significantly and the state has more money to subsidize UC state resident tuition for all state residents. It will once again be possible for middle income students to work their way through a UC with the help of a limited amount of loans. That is how the middle class can once again gain access to UC.
When the middle class shrinks, the answer is not more taxes. California needs to entice job creators to come back to this state so the middle class can grow and pay taxes and fund public higher education. When middle class students need more financial aid, the answer is not to punish the productive taxpayers, but to spread the existing aid equally among low income and middle income students. Make every need-based grant available to middle class students and not just low income students. Since there’s not enough money to go around, make the public grants (such as Cal Grants A,B, and C) competitive based on academic standing and (this may be controversial) choice of marketable majors.
What does it take to stop the obscenely high tuition fee increases? Maybe we should have a look at the only place in North America where students were able to stop a planned fee hike in recent years:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Quebec_student_protests