If you live in California, there is a 99.9 percent probability that you have been directly or indirectly impacted by the Cal State University system, perhaps as a student, an employee or as a relative or friend of someone in the CSU. This is why Nov. 6 matters. This is why California higher education is facing the largest uphill challenge in its history.
Thanks to years of wayward ballot initiatives and the unruly California attitude towards taxation, we now face the greatest savior or threat to public higher education in the form of Proposition 30. Prop. 30 asks voters to approve temporary tax increases on general sales tax and income tax for those earning more than $250,000 to fund the enacted California budget for education and public safety programs. More importantly, the passage of Prop. 30 will effectively prevent a 5 percent tuition increase and a $250 million trigger cut to the CSU.
With the draconian decline in state funding to public higher education, the passage of Prop. 30 is more imperative than ever if we want to preserve educational opportunities for our current and future generations.
All you have to do as a California resident is tell your friends and family about Prop. 30 and exercise your right to vote “yes” on Nov. 6.
We all know the weeks before the election are overburdened with political ads, but we cannot let ourselves get lost in the facetious rhetoric that attempts to dismay us from the facts. Many students have claimed to me that Prop 30. does not actually fund higher education and that Sacramento needs to prioritize their financial obligations before we as taxpayers give them more money. It doesn’t take a Philosophy 170 class to tell us that these are red herrings.
Prop. 30 is not about our ideologies on taxation or about how dysfunctional we think Sacramento is. Prop. 30 is about beginning a trend of investing in California’s future and helping make our state competitive once again. This initiative is only a temporary band-aid on the larger issue of anemic funding patterns for higher education.
As Mario Garret wrote in a letter to the Voice of San Diego, “The problem is that whether the proposition passes or not, nothing changes in how we run our educational institutions.”
Prop. 30 is the first step in addressing this disease in California. What it will take is students becoming active in the democratic process and raising their voices – be it in the ballot box or in the streets.
Prop. 30 will give us the resources, but it will be up to us to hold our legislators accountable to hold up their end of the bargain to reinvest in higher education. This is something we can all come together for, regardless of our red or blue labels.
Prop. 30 is the first step on a long road to making California higher education great once again.
It’s not the solution but rather a start to the wisest thing we can invest our money in – our education.
James Suazo is a senior English education major and Cal State Long Beach’s Associated Students Inc. Secretary for Systemwide Affairs.
