2008 Woodie Awards
Prop 92: yay or nay?
Lance Park
Issue date: 1/30/08 Section: Opinion
Prop 92 is a bill that's being proposed and will be put to the vote on Feb. 5. This bill proposes a few things in relation to colleges and education, including, "reducing college fee's, establish a new minimum level of funding for community colleges, and change the community college governance system," to name a few things. Putting aside a few notes, let's focus on a few items that would affect the average Jacob Student decidedly, namely the reduction of fees and the minimum level of funding.
According to prop92yes.com, a website by a coalition of educators and community college organizations, plus major funding by the California Federation of Teachers Prop/Ballot Committee, Prop 92 will lower unit cost to $15, and limit any fee increase to no more than the cost of living. Using the language, "cost of living," seems to be an awfully subjective way to state it. The actual wording of the bill is thus, "…would limit future annual fee increases to the lesser of percentage change in state per capita personal income or 10%." So in theory, the maximum they could raise it by is 10 percent. This doesn't seem too bad on paper, so there's something going for Prop 92.
Moving on from that, I do understand one valid point stated on the website; the statement that the cost of books constitutes 70 percent of student spending, and a cut in unit prices seems a smaller way to give students some ease, but not enough to really make a difference. For example, Jacob Student spends $45 for a 3.0 unit physics class. The student then goes to get the book, which is a new edition and thus is unlikely to find a used edition. The book costs $185 before tax, $198.50 with tax. Thus the student, for that one class, has spent a total of $243.50. You saved five bucks, congratulations Jacob!
But wait, there's one more step to factor into this equation; transportation. Let's say that Jacob has to commute from Vallejo to SCC three times a week for this class, which is 15 miles. That's a 30-mile round trip three times a week for a total of 90 miles. Assuming Jacob isn't going anywhere else but SCC, he'll probably have to gas up once a week, maybe a week and a half. Gas is around three bucks a gallon. That five dollar saving just went directly to the gas tank for one-and-a-half gallons. This is all for a single class; the average student takes between 9-12 units or more.
According to prop92yes.com, a website by a coalition of educators and community college organizations, plus major funding by the California Federation of Teachers Prop/Ballot Committee, Prop 92 will lower unit cost to $15, and limit any fee increase to no more than the cost of living. Using the language, "cost of living," seems to be an awfully subjective way to state it. The actual wording of the bill is thus, "…would limit future annual fee increases to the lesser of percentage change in state per capita personal income or 10%." So in theory, the maximum they could raise it by is 10 percent. This doesn't seem too bad on paper, so there's something going for Prop 92.
Moving on from that, I do understand one valid point stated on the website; the statement that the cost of books constitutes 70 percent of student spending, and a cut in unit prices seems a smaller way to give students some ease, but not enough to really make a difference. For example, Jacob Student spends $45 for a 3.0 unit physics class. The student then goes to get the book, which is a new edition and thus is unlikely to find a used edition. The book costs $185 before tax, $198.50 with tax. Thus the student, for that one class, has spent a total of $243.50. You saved five bucks, congratulations Jacob!
But wait, there's one more step to factor into this equation; transportation. Let's say that Jacob has to commute from Vallejo to SCC three times a week for this class, which is 15 miles. That's a 30-mile round trip three times a week for a total of 90 miles. Assuming Jacob isn't going anywhere else but SCC, he'll probably have to gas up once a week, maybe a week and a half. Gas is around three bucks a gallon. That five dollar saving just went directly to the gas tank for one-and-a-half gallons. This is all for a single class; the average student takes between 9-12 units or more.
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