Increase in UC Student Fees

I found your analysis in support of the recent student fee increase imposed by the UC Regents to be quite disturbing (“A Tough Blow, but UC Had to Raise Fees,” Editorials, Feb. 16). Justifying the extraordinary fee increase with the bald statement that “everyone . . . must share the pain” and with comparisons to the “real costs” of education that allegedly make attending UC campuses a “bargain” compared to other public and private universities is not only simple-minded but plainly wrong.

Your editorial notes that drastic measures need to be made “in the absence of new and higher levels of taxation.” However, this new fee is precisely one of these “new taxes”--a user tax placed on undergraduates to help make up for the persistent unwillingness of parents to support other general tax increases in the last decade.

This tax is a particularly harmful attempt to raise higher education revenue not only because it further segregates lower-income students but also because it fosters the belief that the only persons who benefit from this “service” are those who use it. Public universities serve all the people of our state, not just those who attend.

More important, we must consider this recent fee increase not only in terms of our state’s current fiscal deficit but also in terms of broader politics of education in our state and in our nation.

Today, people widely believe that education is the foundation for many of our personal and social aspirations. And everyone--the so-called education President, business leaders, parents, and students--urges that we should do more to support our schools. But when faced with the opportunity to re-invest in this valuable resource, few people, least of all the wealthy white Republicans prizing their lower tax bills, are willing to step up to improve the well-being of our people through these fine institutions.

Consequently, the politics of education have yielded solutions in the form of massive cutbacks in educational programs and school construction, and, as recently as last year, a prolonged teachers’ struggle “settled” only as a result of a surprise cache in the state budget.

The real costs of education will only become apparent through its continued neglect, and it bears reminding that the whole idea of public universities is to make excellence in learning and research accessible for all the people of our state.

THOMAS E. SCANLON

San Diego