Why I'm Striking

Education is a public good not a private privilege.

The above statement is the heart of my reason for participating in the system wide student strike on November 18th-20th.  The UC regents are voting on a 32% fee increase on the 19th, a move that would balance the budget on the backs of the students, and the strike is direct action against the possible hike.  Everyone knows that the state is in the worst budget crisis in recent memory, and that the UC system has never been in a worse financial system.  We all know and accept that.  However, the response of the current administration (i.e. Mark Yudof and the UC Regents) to the crisis is unacceptable.  They have not demonstrated that there are no alternatives to fee increases.  In fact, they have considered no alternatives, part of the impetus behind this petition from a faculty group at Berkeley, which you should sign.  A UC Berkeley emeritus physics professor has spent several years studying the UC budget and has made some very troubling, and apparently factual, accusations of mismanagement and misdirection by UC officials.  And he is not the only one making these statements.

The heart of the problem, however, is the fact that the stewards of the UC system, Mark Yudof and Co., believe whole-heartedly in the privatization of public education.  Yudof believes it now, and he believed it when he was President of the University of Minnesota.  He thinks it's ok because, "The private return on investment in higher education to each individual, then, has risen significantly."   Private return on investment.  Private privilege.  That is not UC Berkeley.  It is not the university which contributes, by far,  more to the public good than any other school in the nation.  It is not the University which educates more Pell Grant students than all the Ivy League schools combined, 70% of who's undergraduates have parents where not born in the US, and which sends more undergraduates to PhD programs than any single other university in the country.  Look at those demographics and statistics.  I guarantee you will not find them at any other top university in the country, not even at the other top public universities, such as the University of Michigan, which embodies Mark Yudof's dream of a public/private hybrid but is public in name only.  My brother, a University of Michigan out of state undergraduate, told me 60% of its students' families make more than 100k a year.  Do you think that is representative of Michigan? 

The importance of public education, the reality of education as a public good, is well known.  Consider the findings of this study: "With some key caveats, public universities are generally much more accessible to low-income students—despite the claims of private institutions that they effectively provide generous discounts in tuition rates and financial aid."   Those key caveats? "The case of the University of Michigan, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Virginia (with only 12, 11, and 8 percent, respectively, of their students with Pell Grants) have initiated efforts at privatization that includes enrolling largely wealthy out-of-state students to bring in more tuition income."  Those three universities make up most of the top public universities outside of California.  The study authors, a Berkeley professor and a Berkeley administrator, conclude that "public institutions will remain the primary entry point for middle- and lower-income students".  If the UC system moves to a hybrid public/private model, it could signal the death of high quality public education in the US. 

Of course, there can be no public institutions without the support of the public, which is why the larger budget crisis of public education in California cannot be solved without a concerted effort to make the public case that education is important and benefits all Californians.  You need only to invoke the explosion in growth the nation experienced in the wake of the GI bill and WWII and California specifically witnessed after the implementation of the Master Plan for Higher Education* to show that public education really does benefit the state.  Convincing the public is a parallel goal to the efforts of this coming week's actions; they are not at all at cross purposes.  However, without the belief of the leadership of the UC system it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to make the argument. 

I'll conclude with the statement that public institutions are the engine for social change and economic mobility.  At one time the University of California embodied that ideal.  I'm striking to try to bring it back.

* I find it amusing and telling that the website about the Master Plan, administered by the UCOP,  is a crappy html page which hasn't been updated since 2005.  Contrast it to the main page of the UCOP, Yudof's page or the Regent's page and you'll catch a glimpse of the leadership's priorities.

**What can you do?  
1.  Sign this petition if you are reading this post before November 19th. 
2.  Sign these petitions 
3.  If you are California voter, go to your representative's home office and tell him or her in person that education is a priority.