California sharply raises public university fees
SAN FRANCISCO, California (Reuters) -- California officials, facing a record budget shortfall, voted Wednesday to hike state university tuition fees by up to 30 percent, the latest in a series of tough choices facing the most populous U.S. state.
The finance committee of the University of California's Board of Regents voted 5 to 4 to approve a 25 percent hike in student fees, and authorized an additional 5 percent increase depending on the outcome of the still unresolved budget for the fiscal year that began on July 1.
California's fiscal crisis, highlighted by a $38 billion shortfall, has forced lawmakers struggling to approve a new budget to consider deep spending cuts to higher education along with many other state programs.
"I think we are facing a crisis situation," board member Sherry Lansing said before reluctantly backing the fee increase. "I don't know of any other alternative immediately."
The 200,000 students at the University of California's 10 campuses in places such as Berkeley, San Francisco and Los Angeles will each pay about $1,000 more a year. State resident undergraduates will pay a total of about $4,794 a year, still far cheaper than many of the nation's private universities.
The state's other big public higher educational system, the California State University, which teaches 408,000 students at 23 campuses, also voted on Wednesday to increase fees 30 percent. Students in the CSU system paid an average of $2,070 before the increase.
The university fee increases are the largest in percentage terms since even greater increase in 1991-92 during an earlier California budget crisis.
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