It was only a matter of time. UC eyes surcharge for rich students. Next thing you know, the state will start charging rich people more to ride the bus. Why should rich people get to borrow library books for free? Why should rich people pay the same for trash pickup as poor people? In fact, I think rich people should have to pay a poll tax to vote; why not, they can afford it!
Regent Matt Murray, the lone student on the 25-person governing board, said he supports a surcharge and lashed out at the state's Republican legislators who have resisted tax increases intended to offset the budget deficit.Hold on, is the goal to raise money to deal with the "ridiculous" budget situation, or to "make sure the university is accessible to all kinds of students of all kinds of backgrounds"? Obviously the only way this plan would affect accessibility is if it makes the UC system too expensive for certain "rich" people to afford. But that undermines the whole "they're rich, they can afford it" "argument" brought up earlier in the article. I can see why this proposal is so attractive to California leftists: they get to raise extra money for the government at no political cost to themselves, and they get to socially engineer the composition of the University's student body."Given the ridiculous nature of the budget situation and the limited options the university has, I think it is wise to pursue the idea," he said. "The goal is to make sure the university is accessible to all kinds of students of all kinds of backgrounds."
I'm not terribly surprised that Matt Murray is a Moron (he's the co-founder and president of the Berkeley American Civil Liberties Union).
Sigh, I'm reduced to using Reuters "scare quotes".
And in yet another irony of liberal policy, this will only further the decline of public schools by ensuring that the only people capable of making substantial alumni contributions in the years immediately following graduation will be sending their checks to the Ivy League instead.
Interesting point. I get solicitations from the UCLA alumni association all the time and I just toss them in the trash. Do a lot of people actually give money?
I don't know if alumni funding is generally "broad" or "deep" at most schools, but I suspect that it depends mostly on an elite group of contributors. I don't know, but if that is the case, this sort of soak the rich garbage isn't going to help.
My sister toured UCLA last week and loved it. She really wants to go there. My parents will be supporting three children at various levels of school next year, and unfortunately fall in the "richer" category. They're not pleased.
UCLA has a beautiful campus, and it's a really good school. It's pretty expensive for out-of-state students already, even without this richness-surcharge.
Courtney: what did you sister like so much about it? I mean, I love the school, but I'm curious what struck her as being particularly attractive.
Courtney,
Tell your sister to go to Rice! It's cheaper, more prestiguous, and best of all, it's in TEXAS!
*gasp*
Well, it depends on what you want to do, I suppose.