a question/ story about college

[Laughing_Bun]

OK so i live in california and i go to a community college. Lately they have been petitioning to lower the tuition, its already really cheap like 25$ a unit. and they want to lower it to about 15. The guy who was out there trying to get signatures approached me after i perposfully walked by just to get i allitle argument thing with him. ( i admittedly have the typical college political prowess, and nothing ever cool goes on so i pick silly battles like this one and church groups). anyways I told him i didnt want to sign it. He asked me why? and i told him that i believed it would lower the school budget and turn the place into a dump. He then told me that the school budget was based on property tax and that if the tuition were to be lowered  more students would go there, and the school budget would actually be raised... I didnt really have much to say so i basically said "ehhhhhh i dont think so". Then the called me on denying facts THEN (heres the climax) he said or "you dont believe me because of the color of my skin?!" (he was a black guy about 35). I didnt want to play his stupid game so i just said "yeah, thats it you got it" and walked away. It was kind of cool to have a racial encounter...even though he was calling me racist it was obvious the predjudice rested souly on his shoulders.

I didnt really like the idea of not knowing what I was talking about i just assumed that tuition went into the school budget. SO after that i tried to research online and came up empty handed
Anways my question that you may not be able to awnser because it may be a local thing. is "does tuition generally effect the school budget?" I know you guys might not be able to give me the perfect awnser im just curious if you could shed allitle light on how it may work, like if the guy was telling something factual or if he was just blowing smoke.

[SilentEdge]

...

Where do you live? I had a similar experience entering an Albertsons the other day in Orange, CA, where I got to a private school (on scholarship mind you). I was with my girlfriend and the guy stood in front of me and her and asked me to sign the petition. I gave him a flat no and the get the f out of my way look.

I mean christsake the classes are practically free anyway, and if you can't afford them you should be working another job with the time you would be spending in classes. He then decided it was time to get confrontational with me. "I don't see how you couldn't sign a petition which would allow those with lower incomes to attend college."

I cocked my head at him and said: "It's quite simple. I'm not a socialist. Pay for your own fu*king college instead of taxing me." and pushed by him. My girl got a kick out of it.

[Laughing_Bun]

I go to sierra college which is about 20 miles out of sacramento.

[Zazoo]

$25 per credit hour? WTF you guys suck. It's bad enouch you have the awesome UC system, but cheap tuition too? I hate you. I hate you. I hate you.

:tongue:
~Mike

[BajaBravo]

At the college I work at, tuition accounts for about 50% of the post-secondary budget with provincial grants accounting for the other half. That includes some services but other services are 100% paid for by student fees - for example, the Mobile Computing department is paid for by students in programs that require a laptop. Non-post secondary (which my college does a lot of) such as corporate training, etc is funded just like a private enterprise.

It always kills me when I have students that complain that college should be free but barely show up, let alone engage, even though they pay tuition. I'd seriously rethink my career if they got rid of tuition. Without it I think college would turn into a form of daycare for young adults.

I do believe that the government should pony up some cash for post-secondary education simply for the reason that there is a pretty direct relationship between labour force productivity and education. The higher the labour force productivity, the greater the growth economically, which benefits everyone. Besides, they easily make the money back in increased income tax revenue alone.

[BajaBravo]

Incidentally, it seems the petition dude doesn't understand the concept of fixed vs. variable costs. Increasing the number of students means they have to hire more teachers which is the most expensive cost for colleges by a wide margin.

[MONOLITH]

I was with my girlfriend and the guy stood in front of me and her and asked me to sign the petition....... He then decided it was time to get confrontational with me.

Heh heh. I love these guys. It's like the highlight of my day. Remember my gay hungarian hand cream guy?

These people are so used to 8 out of 10 people 'submitting' to what they want, they have no idea when they stop me that they just pulled the pin out of a handgrenade.  :tongue: