A Stu­dent Pro­posal Could Make a Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia Edu­ca­tion Afford­able Once Again

Back in the golden days of the 1960s and 1970s, stu­dents could attend one of the 10 Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia cam­puses for almost noth­ing. They grad­u­ated with­out crip­pling debt, enabling them to buy homes, start fam­i­lies, and live the Cal­i­for­nia dream.

Today, the sys­tem is bal­anc­ing its bud­gets on out-of-state tuition dol­lars, and stu­dents are so angry about the spi­ral­ing cost of attend­ing a UC school that they’ve marched on free­ways and occu­pied meet­ings of the Board of Regents. But one group of stu­dents, Fix UC, is mov­ing beyond protest signs, pre­sent­ing a plan to the Regents that might help solve the Golden State’s higher-education fis­cal crisis.

Under the Fix UC pro­posal, stu­dents would pay noth­ing upfront to attend any Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia cam­pus. They’d go through four years of school with­out hav­ing to worry about com­ing up with the next tuition pay­ment or how to pay for hous­ing, enabling them to focus solely on their studies.

After grad­u­a­tion, stu­dents would be required to pay back 5 per­cent of their income for 20 years. If a grad­u­ate lost her job or went through a patch of under­em­ploy­ment, her repay­ment amount would adjust accord­ingly. Grad­u­ates who stayed in Cal­i­for­nia to work, thus con­tribut­ing to the state’s tax base, would pay back half a per­cent less. Those who worked in the pub­lic sec­tor — like school teach­ers — would see another 1 per­cent chopped off their bill. Out-of-state and inter­na­tional stu­dents would be required to pay back 6 per­cent of their income.

The pro­posal sug­gests the state grad­u­ally adopt the model, start­ing with a small group of stu­dents whose entire cost of attend­ing a UC is already cov­ered. Repay­ments would be enforced by a new office with the power to con­fis­cate grad­u­ates’ income tax returns if they didn’t make payments.

At a recent Regents meet­ing, Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia pres­i­dent Mark G. Yudof said he was impressed with the pro­posal and that the regents “think the ideas are con­struc­tive.” And accord­ing to the number-crunchers at Busi­ness Week, the idea is fea­si­ble. Cur­rent in-state tuition at UC San Diego is about $52,936. An engi­neer­ing grad­u­ate, the mag­a­zine deter­mined, earns a start­ing salary of about $55,000. That means 20 years of Fix UC pay­ments would equal out to about one year’s salary — a pretty afford­able deal, espe­cially con­sid­er­ing the pay­ments would be interest-free.

The hitch is that the cost of col­lege has been ris­ing faster than infla­tion, mean­ing that the $52,936 would cost the state $98,814 at a con­ser­v­a­tive 3.18 per­cent infla­tion rate. That would be fine if grad­u­ates’ salaries also were ris­ing with infla­tion, but because that’s not cur­rently hap­pen­ing, it’d be tough to make the sys­tem finan­cially viable for the state.

The Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia cam­puses are still reel­ing from $650 mil­lion in cuts this year, and Gov­er­nor Jerry Brown says more are on deck in 2012 — which will cause even more tuition increases. The days of a com­pletely free higher edu­ca­tion may be long gone, and the Fix UC plan may not be the per­fect solu­tion, but it’s refresh­ing to see some real brain­storm­ing on how to make col­lege afford­able once again.

Photo via Wiki­me­dia Commons