The Golden State of despair

The Golden State of despair

by digby

There was a time when California had the best and least expensive public educational system in the world. Not anymore:

Going to school at Harvard University is cheaper than attending a public university in California.

According to the Bay Area News Group, a “family of four — married parents, a high-school senior and a 14-year-old child — making $130,000 a year,” with typical financial aid, would pay around $17,000 for tuition, room and board and other expenses, if their child went to Harvard. However, if their child attended a Cal State, they would pay $24,000. Going to the University of California, Santa Cruz would cost around $33,000; at UC Berkeley would be about $19,500.

Other Ivy League schools including Yale University and Princeton University offer similar financial scenarios.

“It does sort of put you in an awkward spot,” Dean Kulju, financial-aid director of the 400,000-student Cal State system, said. Cal State has double their tuition since 2007, the Bay Area News Group reported.

Thanks Howard Jarvis. You must be so proud to see your “revolution” resulted in the state of California being drowned in the bathtub.

And as California goes, so goes the nation, if Mitt Romney has anything to say about it:

“It would be popular for me to stand up and say I’m going to give you government money to pay for your college, but I’m not going to promise that,” he said, to sustained applause from the crowd at a high-tech metals assembly factory here. “Don’t just go to one that has the highest price. Go to one that has a little lower price where you can get a good education. And hopefully you’ll find that. And don’t expect the government to forgive the debt that you take on.”

What do you suppose these “affordable” colleges he speaks of are?

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