Outing other choices, really, on the college cost question

Opinion: Outing other choices, really, on the college cost question

UCLA Foundation President Shirley Wang recently donated $1 million for middle-class scholarships; three students (l to r) Tobi Jekayinfa, Rachel Wilson and Daniela Herrera are middle-class students who recently shared stories of their struggles.

Jan. 26, 2017 5 AM PT

To the editor: Can someone please explain to me what’s the shame in attending affordable, high-quality, local community colleges before completing your four-year degree at a UC or state university?

(“Parents pinched by cost of state’s colleges,” Jan. 24)

I never met anyone who said “I have a degree from UCLA but the first two years were spent at community college.’’

Even if you have a GPA of 4.66 or 5, what’s wrong with saving your family over $60,000 when you’re going to end up in the same place as someone who was able to afford the full four years?

Ron Garber, Duarte

To the editor: I’m not sure that I’d be a professor today, mentoring thousands of students, if it were not for my free education (no-cost undergraduate and fellowships at graduate level).

I’m not sure that the thousands of students I mentor would achieve such great success if it weren’t for my free education.

I certainly would not be the recipient of a U.S. Presidential Award for mentoring if the government had not invested in me.

Free college tuition should be a high priority for this nation if we want to remain a great country. As in the 1950s and ’60s when I was a student, we need America to be great again by investing in our future.

Working full time while a college student is the sure way to demolish the quality of our future workforce.

Steve Oppenheimer, Northridge

To the editor: I think Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to phase out the middle-class scholarship program is a quintessential example of why millions of people around the country voted for Donald Trump.

It is not only uneducated white males who feel left behind, but hard-working middle-class families whose voices have gone unheard.

If we don’t start addressing these issues, then the election of men like Trump will be become a familiar affair rather than the anomaly that we hope it is.

Shari O’Connell, Santa Monica

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