<p>As a student of UC Berkeley, I am saddened when I see the total cost of attendance for these top CA research universities.</p>
<p>Public
UC Berkeley: $28,897
UCLA: $29,074</p>
<p>Public Comparable
UMich: $25,203
UVA: $21,660</p>
<p>Private
Stanford: $52,713
USC: $53,618</p>
<p>Private Comparable
Harvard: $52,000
Cornell: $54,676</p>
<p>How are these four research universities affordable? No wonder the public has lost faith in higher education.</p>
<p>Not to mention, getting into a private, you could get a nice bundle of financial aid.</p>
<p>HEY A S S H O L E!</p>
<p>UC Berkeley is a top notch research university and I’m receiving a world class education here. Best Bang For My Buck.</p>
<p>…wait, that doesn’t sound right…</p>
<p>Well, you obviously don’t think it’s SO unaffordable that you don’t want the near-bankrupt state government to pay for it.</p>
<p>The public has lost faith in education because of endless education cuts and programs like No Child Left Behind that changed the entire culture of our education system. Education could be and should be so much better than it is in the US.</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>But Californians would rather pay lower taxes.</p>
<p>And their elected officials know that.</p>
<p>Their elected officials also know that Californians don’t understand how fundamentally flawed our education system is.</p>
<p>We elected a man who required a ridiculous amount of votes to raise taxes, we elected a body builder, and now we may elect a power-hungry politically-blind ex-CEO of a company with very low user reputation.</p>
<p>We’ll learn once we hit rock bottom and when we all graduate we’ll all pay the price for our parents’ mistakes. :)</p>
<p>anonymousername, publics are less expensive than privates. But, tell me how affordable is a 30k per year bill. There was a time not so long ago when the total cost of attending a UC was 10k, but now prices have increased enough times that it is significantly more expensive than the majority of Californias can pay. The UC system will lose great students to well funded publics or the Cal State system. Do you want that to happen?</p>
<p>The cost of a top-tier education is more than the majority of Californians can pay. Funding education more doesn’t change that, it just transfers the cost to other people.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Well luckily, most polls show Jerry Brown (a Cal alumnus!) trouncing Meg Whitman</p>
<p>The vehicle licensing fee that was rescinded by Governor Schwarzenegger back in 2003 was not so bad. Unlike income tax which taxes productive labor, the vlf would have taxed nonproductive wealth. If it had remained in effect, it would have decreased the annual budget shortfall by 4 billion dollars.</p>
<p>Schwarzenegger rescinded the vlf in one of his first acts as governor. It was not a tax cut we could afford, but no one noticed because of booming income from property taxes. Now we have a lot of extra debt that we must pay back with interest, and we are doing it with a regressive sales tax, and deep cuts to education. This disinvestment in education will harm California’s economy in the long run.</p>
<p>bump</p>
<p>10 char</p>