California Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi wants to cap future fee increases for UC and CSU students. He says they should only go up with the rate of inflation. This week he's presenting the idea to both the UC Regents and the CSU Trustees. Garamendi is a member of both. He says public higher education has become less of a priority.
Garamendi: We've seen that important aspect of the California system rapidly disappearing and student fees in both the CSU system as well as at the UC system have escalated.
Garamendi says fees in both systems have nearly doubled over the last five years. He says both the Trustees and the Regents are expected to vote on his proposal in January - but he doesn't expect them to pass. In the past, university officials have said they need to increase fees to pay for the cost of educating students.
