As a future MBA graduate from an already impacted State University, I find the budget cuts in higher education institutions reprehensible. While working on the Student Fee Advisory Committee at UC Santa Cruz, I gained first-hand experience and knowledge of the damage that cuts, such as the those agreed upon for the California budget, cause.
The California legislature and the Office of the Governor has effectively signed a death sentence for higher education. These cuts will cause the UC and State system to deteriorate even further. The services, especially non-academic units, have not recovered from the last set of state cuts. Left in the wake of California's last round of massive budget cuts to higher education, students have taken it upon themselves to pay for educational necessities. Thus when the Office of the Governor says " a Budget forged on no new taxes", they are in fact deceiving themselves and the public. It seems that the taxed will become already indebted students, and the University system, which, with a lack of funding will progressively deteriorate and will no longer be able to draw talent to California.
Higher Education is an integral part of the growth and innovation that has shaped California. Cuts in Education do not provide returns and are a short-sighted bandage to a problem that will later become a systemic infection.
As a taxpayer, I look at myself and my peers as the future of California and I hope the Legislature, and the Office of the Governor will consider the long-term impact of cutting Higher Education in the State of California.
