By Cynthia Parkhill
An image of students at a “Ramen-In” to protest rising class fees really strikes me plangent. Only geography separates me from students who contributed to the mound of noodle soup boxes in front of the former offices of State Governor Jerry Brown.
The idea came from a conversation that Elizabeth Valldejuli, a student at L.A. Valley College Pasadena City College and an American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Local 1521 intern, had with faculty coordinator Zack Knorr.
As reported in the California Federation of Teachers (CFT)”s May “AFT Perspective,” Knorr was talking with Valldejuli about a proposed $10-per-unit increase in fees for community college students. According to the CFT and to author Fred Glass, this equates to an extra $300 that the state will be taxing students.
Valldejuli”s reply was, “Wow, $300 is a lot of Ramen.”
According to the “AFT Perspective,” hundreds of students delivered thousands of packages of Ramen to the governor”s former offices “to dramatize the impact of this huge proposed fee increase.”
Missing from the article is how the CFT arrived at its math. An extra $10-per-unit for a three-unit class comes to $30 added to the $26-per-unit that students currently pay. A full course-load would typically be four classes or 12 units. That”s an additional $120.
One-hundred and twenty is not 300, but it is still a considerable increase in the amount that students would have to pay ? and I agree with the CFT that a community college fee increase is a “tax on the wrong people.”
I have a full-time job so I attend courses part-time but I still have to budget for class fees and materials among my family”s household expenses.
I enrolled in a community college program because its four-year-college counterparts cost vastly more than I could afford. To now gouge the prices that are paid by community college students is to further place education out-of-reach.
Is California so determined to deny itself a future professional workforce? Who will fill the positions in our society that require vocational certification or two- or four-year degrees if we”ve priced education out-of-reach?
A fee increase seems particularly foolish when there are other avenues available. In the same issue of “AFT Perspective,” CFT suggests raising the income tax by 1 percent upon people who earn more than $500,000 a year.
Returning to the CFT”s coverage of the “Ramen-In,” Glass cites protesters advocating passage of Assembly Bill 1239, which would create a temporary 10-percent tax bracket for people making more than $250,000 and a temporary 11-percent bracket for people with taxable incomes greater than $400,000. These temporary tax brackets would expire after five years.
Rich people rely upon a qualified workforce the same as anyone else and are far better able to make the investment than community college students. For this reason, I think it is in everybody”s best interests to keep education affordable.
Cynthia Parkhill is focus publications editor for the Record-Bee. She can be contacted at rbinfocus@gmail.com. or call he directly at 263-5636 ext. 39.
