# Promise for Education: Jesus wept **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 22, 2013, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/promise-for-education-jesus-wept/669465 "2013-09-22T20:53:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2013, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/promise-for-education-jesus-wept/669465/1 "2013-09-22T20:53:30Z")
This morning, I received a plea from California Governor Jerry Brown to help raise funds for education. It’s a pledge thing, not very different from sponsored walk/run events: > [@](#): > > It could be anything, from going skydiving or volunteering as a tutor, to running a 5K. Participants set a donation goal and then reach out to their networks for support. OK, my kids have done that for their school. I’m not crazy about the fact that we can’t seem to collect enough tax money to pay for education, but that’s not what bothers me this time. No, it’s this: > [@](#): > > The University of California has just launched Promise for Education, an online crowdfunding program to help deserving students across California. > > Promise for Education is simple. It asks everyone - students, alumni, faculty, staff and UC friends – to make a promise. WTF? The University of California, the crown jewel of California education, arguably the finest public university in the world, has moved beyond hitting up the alumni and is now begging the public for charity, like the March of fucking Dimes? What’s next, a goddamn bake sale? ---
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2013, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/promise-for-education-jesus-wept/669465/2 "2013-09-22T21:03:33Z")
Looks like they are asking to fund more students, not build things. Nothing wrong with that. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2013, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/promise-for-education-jesus-wept/669465/3 "2013-09-22T23:24:28Z")
There is something tremendously wrong with it. When I graduated from Cal in 1988, the total fees were a hair under $1500 per year. Inflation would bring that to about $3000 in 2013. Know what the actual fee is now? $13,000! Thirteen fucking thousand dollars per year. That’s $10,000 in tax cuts and administrative bloat for each of 235,000 students. They are not going to admit more students, nor hire new faculty. They will continue to pay for unnecessary staff, but mostly they are going to take it in the ass because tax-dodging dipshits can’t or won’t see what they’ve done to California. Maybe next year they’ll let us “sponsor” individual students, and we’ll get term papers in the mail – hey, it works for World Vision, right? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2013, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/promise-for-education-jesus-wept/669465/4 "2013-09-23T01:14:53Z")
Yeah, I agree that there is something wrong with that. It’s embarrassing, and worse, it devalues the degrees I hold from that institution. ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/promise-for-education-jesus-wept/669465/5 "2013-09-25T07:21:08Z")
Shit, just wait until the student loan balloon pops.