Except that Arnold specifically promised not to touch education.
But the OP is about how Arnold is doing as Governer. If not keeping campaign promises automatically drops a politician into the poor job category then why have politicians? Wait…
He’s my kind of Republican: or at least he thinks he is (dunno whether he really understands what his fiscal policy is really doing, and that borrowing is still basically like raising taxes: i.e. it’s not any kind of success in shrinking government). But I can’t stand his public personna: he’s like a bad Saturday Night Live sketch that never ends. Can he please hire a speechwriter who doesn’t think it the height of hilarity to repeat movie quips over and over? He’s not a dumb guy by any means, but his speeches do not reveal any sort of depth: they reveal someone with the attitude of the “makin copies!” guy from… Saturday Night Live. Ok. It was funny the FIRST time. But after the 87th… it begins to wear…
This is the only thing I am upset about, however, I am so upset about it that I would not vote for him again unless he fixes things.
Community Colleges here were $11/unit but have now risen to $26/hr, in less than two years. The cost of living here is already much too high so it makes going to college for those of us with very low incomes difficult. I realize that rates need to be raised, but I think it should have been done more slowly.
The UCs went from (I believe) about $5k and either are at or will be at $7k. (Unfortunately, none of my UC-going friends are on at the moment)
Another negative part of raising the rates was cutting back on scholarships. My ex-boyfriend who goes to a major UC system and is from the ghetto of LA had his scholarships cut AND the school rates rise at the same time. He almost had to drop out, but his parents valued his education so much they are now paying out of their retirement money. Several others of my friends had their funding cut and almost had to drop out.
I believe education is the most important thing and that it should be cut absolutely last.
So did raising the cost of education help? The bond he passed covered CA deficit for just this year, right? So how much did Arnold’s cutting gov’t expenditures do to balance the budget. Will CA be in the same place next year as it was last, or did the rising economy and the cutting of expenditures do enought to cover all the bills?
I hope you’re kidding, and that you’re not really suggesting that breaking campaign promises shouldn’t be a valid reason for criticism.
It’s not just the rise in rates.
I don’t think a non-Californian can understand the pride we take in our college system. It used to be that even a fast-food worker with three kids could still afford to get ahead in life at a junior college. My mother went to college while raising me as a single mom. When my uncle had to shut down his failing business, he started school mid-life to be a teacher. Immigrants could get degrees even if their high schools let them down and even the kid whose mom put all their money into drugs could afford school even without family support.
We used to have a system where everyone had a place. College was possible for everyone and for once all it took really was hard work and dedication. And often these were first-class facilities. Scholarships were abundant.
And this is a big part of California’s prosperity. What do you think fueled the dot-com boom? Why do you think we have such a big economy in things like sciences and biotech? Do you know what it’s like to know that every kid in even the poorest school district has a place in higher education? Our colleges were our promise to the future.
And in one fell swoop, one man is dismantling that.
Sure, the fee hikes don’t sound that bad. But they do outprice many people, and serve to make getting an education even harder for poor and working people who want to improve their lives. The hikes to State University and University of California students was even worse- I think UCs went up $2000- or $8000 for the whole four years. Thats an undoable sum for the kid that worked his butt off to get in to Berkeley to suddenly have to cough up. Education is sliding back into the realm of the elite.
College budgets have been cut to the bone. They can’t hire replacments for their workers that retire or move on. They can’t afford essential staff. The staff they can hire is on part-time or seasonal duty. They can’t maintain their facilities. Programs are closing left and right. Librairies cut hours. Councilers close shop. Labs can no longer afford the latest equiptment. We’re watching our first-class facilities become little better than our beleagured public high schools.
Scholarships are cut. Less kids from the ghetto, less immigrants, less single-mothers and less of those for whom college is a dream they worked hard for are able to go to school. Many kids have to drop out mid-education because they can’t afford the sudden new costs. More dreams die. More hard work goes unrewarded.
For the first time in history, California’s colleges broke the promise that was made a hundred years ago when they were founded. They could not educate all the student who qualified. For once there was not a place in a University of California campus for all UC qualified people and not a place in a State University for every State University student. Our kids grew up with this promise, and they found out all of a sudden that it wasn’t true. Bright kids who worked hard and thought they had a place got mailboxes full of rejection letters last year. This generation of high school students was shocked to find that the spots they were promised just arn’t there. They are filling up the Junior Colleges- stunned that what would have gotten them a spot in a UC two years ago doesn’t even get them into a CSU. Because of enrollment cutbacks, there just isn’t room for them anymore.
Our colleges worked. They were part of the greatest public education system in America.
California is a great state- a huge economy and a good place to live. Our college system was our crowning jewel. But once it is destroyed, it’s going to be hard to get back. I understand we are going through some financial difficulties, and we need to tighten the belt. Schwarzenegger told us he could do that without taking away from our colleges. But he lied to us. When the going got tough, he jumped straight to our colleges hoping that nobody would notice (after all, not that many people are in college at any time and the cuts wouldn’t affect most his voter base directly). Instead of being untouched, our colleges were the hardest hit. We’ve already let down one generation of kids and it’s going to be tough to undo the damage for future generations.
Maybe I should point our why I feel so strongly about this.
I graduated from college two years ago. If I had graduated one year later, I probably would not have been able to get my degree because of Schwarzenegger’s policies. My family and I were crying with joy when we found out that the fees would barely miss me.
Forget I said anything. Yes, an elected official breaking a campaign promise is a valid reason for criticism. For some reason I read your comment to mean that Arnie’s doing a poor job just because he broke a campaign promise. I blame lack of sleep for reading too much into your comment. Sorry for the confusion.
Also, after reading this thread and doing some reading elsewhere online I agree that Schwarzenegger’s handling of California higher education has been poor overall. I still think the whole junior college tuition thing is blown out of proportion, but that’s just a nitpick.
I’ll agree with that to an extent. I was amazed to hear that junior college could cost hundreds per credit out of state, so I’ll be the first to say that we’re pretty spoiled around here! 
Nonetheless, we were used to it… changing something we were banking on so quickly is what I fault him for, even though it amounted to a relatively small change.
I’ll tell you a similar story. The transit system around here went through a lot of changes over the last few years. With little warning, the transfers went from printed paper to cards with a magnetic stripe. While they used to last 2.5-3 hours and for unlimited rides, they were set to a definite 2 hours, then it was 1.5 hours, then, they made it so the transfer could only be used once before it expired.
This really threw people off. First, people had to get used to the new electronic system; second, they realized probably they couldn’t catch the bus, catch a movie or go shopping, and then head home on a transfer… then they realized that if you had to make more than one connection, you’d be paying at least twice. None of the transitions went particularly well for the first month, IMO.
The issue here wasn’t so much the money, though a bus rider with the cash would be just fine. The issue was that a system we’d relied on for a number of years changed suddenly.
I guess we should toughen up. It’s just nice to have that constancy.
A quick rant:
Both the transit system changes and the cc cost/unit hike occured while either system was upgrading while deteriorating. Now I don’t mind paying $26 a unit, or $1.50 a bus ride, but when a) they’re buying a new bus fleet while reducing service or b) building new state-of-the-art facilities while firing instructors and cutting classes, I can’t help but be a bit bitter at the new costs I have to bear.