Sacramento is finally starting to seriously reverse its divestment from higher education. With the state beginning to emerge from a deep slump of deficits and spending cuts, Gov. Jerry Brown earlier this month announced a budget plan for the next fiscal year that proposes sorely needed increased funding to the University of California and the California State University.
After the UC system was hit with around $900 million in cuts over the last five years, Brown’s budget would allocate about $250 million in extra state money for the university. For the next four years, the governor intends to boost the university’s funding by 4 or 5 percent. While both proposals are welcome signals that Brown is prioritizing the state’s commitment to higher education, other aspects of his approach to the university’s budget are troubling.
The budget plan is fraught with restrictions at a time when the university needs the freedom to determine a strong path toward a more sustainable financial future. According to UC spokesperson Dianne Klein, there is a gap of about $150 million between Brown’s proposal and what the university needs for the next year, prompting concerns about how UC leadership will account for the difference. To that end, Brown has suggested further reducing inefficiencies — an easy target that fails to adequately meet the university’s structural problems.
UC officials have already focused on becoming more prudent with their resources. In a statement released shortly after Brown’s proposal was announced, Patrick Lenz, the university’s vice president for budget and capital resources, agreed with the governor’s “emphasis on fiscal discipline.” However, he also noted that the university has implemented hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of efficiency measures and cuts and is aiming to reduce administrative expenses systemwide by half a billion dollars. The university can’t cut its way to sustainability.
Yes, Brown was able to guide Prop. 30 to victory, which has now allowed the university to receive more funding. Yet that does not mean he has license to micromanage what the university does with that money, especially because state funds still account for a relatively small portion of the university budget.
Brown is also calling on the UC system to freeze its tuition levels, which the Legislative Analyst’s Office has already warned against in the long term. Students and administrators alike want to see tuition stabilize, but keeping the cost frozen could result in steeper increases later on.
This should be a time where the university, not the governor or the state Legislature, uses increased funding to figure out how to best serve its students’ needs. Doing so will require innovative approaches, not the misguided restrictions this budget seeks to impose.