Budget Cuts in State Education Dan Saldana, a 19-year-old sophomore majoring in International Security and pursuing a minor in Naval Science at Miramar.

Budget Cuts in State Education Dan Saldana, a 19-year-old

sophomore majoring in International Security and pursuing a minor in Naval Science at Miramar College, was forced to resort to enrolling in two classes at Mesa that were cut from Miramar.

"Like many other people that are going to school," said Saldana, "I have a job. I drive to school, I drive to work, and now I have to drive to an entirely different campus to take classes that were cut at Miramar because of this whole situation with the budget problem. It's sad."

"People are really scrambling for classes next semester," said Saldana, "No matter where you go, you'll see that every school is being affected. They raised the fees and we're paying so much money, but only a handful of the classes I'm required to take are being offered.“ Dan Saldena

http://www.cpec.ca.gov/Agendas/Agenda0912/Item_04.pdf

California State University Budget Cuts 2009-2010

UC - $ 813 million less than 2008State Universities - $ 625 million lessCommunity Colleges - $ 812 million less

(This year’s budget before federal stimulus contribution)

2009-2010 support for students unable to pay tuition themselves: 10,000Cut in 2009-2010 enrollment: 10,000Who do you think is going to be passed over for enrollment?

California Higher Education: (some of the) Issues Being Considered by State in Light of Cuts

• Access for veterans, students with disabilities, and people from groups historically underrepresented in higher education

• Diversion of students to non-selective private institutions, which typically have higher fees

• Decline in the quality of education• Decreased transfer rates• Increased time-to-degree• Increased levels of student debt• Diminishing research capacity• Ability of the systems to recover from funding

reductions

• Source: CPEC draft report: December 2009

Proposals from UC Berkeley to Address Budget

• Increasing class sizes and reducing 8% of course offerings

– The university predicts that reduced course offerings will increase time-to-degree by 6 months.

• Not filling open faculty positions, thus increasing student–faculty ratios.

• Cutting graduate student assistants and lecture positions by up to 20% in some departments. – This limits educational and professional opportunities for

graduate students as well as providing less support to undergraduate classes.

• Reducing on-campus work opportunities.• Cutting student services.• Reducing library hours, closing libraries on Sundays, and no

24-hour service during final exams.

How Will This Effect You?Immediate and Long Term Effects:• Cut in Lecturers and Reduction of Course Offerings

– Elective courses likely to disappear entirely– Small Classroom Sizes already disappearing– Minimum number of students increased from 15 (unofficially) to 20 (official minimum) this year– State University and University Class sizes will grow from 45-65 and from 80-100 to double, triple

an quadruple that size (less graduate student TAs means less help outside the classroom)• Length of Time in College and Increased Debt

– What was a “four year” college education is rapidly increasing to six, seven years and more– Federal Student Loans have been farmed out to private banks over the last decade– What you sign as a loan from the Federal Government changes to banks’ policies on credit after

one or two years• One missed payment and your 3-8% interest payment becomes 20-25%• You are not allowed to default on student loans; bankruptcy won’t help you

• Transfer Opportunities– Overcrowded Classrooms already under court order to reduce enrollment– University of California to reduce enrollments to UC by 45, 000 in the next year– State University cutting 10,000 enrollments this year / 40,000 by next year

• Diversion of Students to Private Colleges and Privatization of the University Systems– USF, SCU, Notre Dame de Namur, Stanford, etc.

• Higher Tuition– UC and CSU tuitions bumped 30% This year, but Private Universities are still higher– Post-secondary Education was once the province of the rich and will be again at this rate

Cal State University ReductionsEnrollment Reductions for 2010–11, Selected CSU Campuses• Campus Enrollment target Enrollment goal Percent change• Bakersfield 6,885 6,472 -6.0%• San Diego 28,298 25,233 -10.8%• Chico 14,712 13,314 -9.5%• East Bay 11,764 10,646 -9.5%• San Francisco 23,416 20,879 -10.8%• San Jose 22,460 20,027 -10.8%• Fullerton 27,190 24,245 -10.8%

• CSU Chancellor’s Office 2009–10 Enrollment Targets and 2010–11 Planning Goal for full-time students.

• Note: SFSU estimates are low / they are now 8,000 overenrolled!

What’s Going On Here?• California has been creeping toward restructuring public education for three

decades, beginning with Prop. 13. Is the creep about to turn into a stampede?

• The University of California at Berkeley is planning to admit more out-of-state residents this year. Berkeley's non-resident undergraduate population is quite low (around 10 percent typically, counting both U.S. residents outside California and international students). Robert Birgeneau, the chancellor, told The Contra Costa Times that he hopes that the shift will set off some anger from California residents, saying: "Actually, I hope for some pushback. This is connected to the state's failure to pay for the University of California."

• While faculty leaders at the University of California have been critical of the administration's management of the state's severe budget crisis, they too are calling for more out-of-state students. Department chairs at UC San Diego issued a statement calling for significant increases in out-of-state enrollments. "Admitting more students from other states would also enhance UCSD's national reputation and it will benefit California in the long run since a significant number of American students who go to university out of state end up settling in the state where they attended university. It is in California's interest to attract some of the best and the brightest high school graduates from around the country, to provide them with a world‐class education and then to reap the tax revenues that result when these university graduates enter California's workforce," said the statement.

• Reactions to the State Budget crisis may be thought about in a framework described by Naomi Klein that she calls “Disaster Capitalism.”

The Shock Doctrine and the Rise of Disaster Capitalism

"In addition to providing immediate humanitarian assistance, the U.S. response to the tragic earthquake in Haiti offers opportunities to re-shape Haiti’s long-dysfunctional government and economy as well as to improve the public image of the United States in the region.“ - The Heritage Foundation

Since the 1980s Capitalism has turned more and more to a doctrine of taking advantage of crisis This idea is not new, but with research into the effects of

trauma from the 1940s to the 1980s sponsored by the CIA and Defense Department, it has been increasingly applied around the world.

A population with traumatic stress and post-traumatic stress is considered more pliable and more vulnerable to our agendas, whether they involve “regime change” or economic development.

This is true because people are immobilized and confused – less able to formulate resistance strategies when suffering from trauma

There is a reason the Bush Defense Department labeled the Iraq invasion strategy “shock and awe.”

The Hurricane Katrina Example• How do you turn a historical, but “quaint” tourist attraction into a modern

capital generating venture?– Application of Shock and Awe to New Orleans– Media Complicity – Spreading the myth of the Superdome Chaos, looting

• From “those poor people!” to “those savages!”• Race and Class prejudices merged to raise public support of military deployment / urban renewal by large contracting firms (Bechtel,

KBR and Haliburton get rebuilding contracts)– Putting the privatized military to work: deployment of Blackwater to N.O.– “Rebuilding New Orleans” contracted out same companies who got contracts for Iraq after the invasion– Small local contractors bypassed by Feds; few local African Americans hired in construction efforts– Tensions between African Americans and Mexican Americans exacerbated because Mexican Immigrant labor

hired by Bechtel, Kellogg Brown an Root and Haliburton– Formerly Black housing projects torn down, reducing African American population– Public K-12 education turned over to private charter schools

• End Result: New Hotels, Elimination of “blighted neighborhoods,” reduction of poor and working class people that deter tourists, utilizing now unemployed New Oreaners to fill service sector augmented with new Latino population, breaking black voting power in Louisiana, breaking public unions, taming Mardi Gras

• Prediction: Mardi Gras will be substantially severed from Catholic traditions and now be more like a parade at Disneyworld; no more shocking tourists with bare-breasted women, drunken revelers or post-Mardi Gras riots

• Wages are permanently lowered, employment opportunities largely tied to tourism

Shock and Awe in California Schools• Is the “shock doctrine” being applied to California Education systems and why?• If it is, look for these developments:• Who benefits: Follow the Money

– California fades as an immigrant destination, increases its allure as a tourist magnet• Legal immigration diminishes; illegal immigration still encouraged by manufacturing and tourist

industry, sex trades to take advantage of greater control over workers/wages– California private colleges, public universities increasingly recruit out of state,

international students• UC remains public institution; state universities are sold off to private contractors

– Teachers unions are broken; new owner refuses to hire unionized teachers– Less and less students of color or working class, ‘poor students ‘are accepted into colleges

– California education becomes homogenized• Textbooks standardized across state• Tenure is eliminated in newly privatized schools• “Academic freedom” becomes a thing of the past as curriculums are more and more standardized

and held to standardized tests as a measure of efficiency and used by the military as recruiting sites– Private college professors no longer have tenure to protect their classroom freedom of speech– Public university professors will eventually make concessions here too. Tenure system becomes provisional;

open to periodic review– Teachers will not object because of a job market glut: “If you don’t like it, we’ll hire someone else.”

• Vocational Ed colleges experience a boom– Provide a cheap alternative to basic skills for low level manufacturing, service sector and

high tech jobs• In ten years, “I went to Devry!” will become the most common answer to

employers when you’re asked about your education.

Exercise Your Rights as Citizens and Students!

• Extraordinary Times Call For Extraordinary Measures: Business as Usual is Not and Option.

• Network with students on other campuses: keep in touch with their actions and support them.

• Make some noise: Write legislators; press your teachers to get on board; keep up with news; complain about cancelled classes, etc.

• You are consumers here. Demand to get what you paid for.• Get together and talk about this. It’s your future and your

investment; take the lead.• Know your history: what have students done in the past?

- What worked, what didn’t and how can that be adapted.

Take control of your destiny . . . or somebody else will.