Majority Leader Torrico’s bill to increase higher education funding to be heard Monday

***Press Release***

Majority Leader Torrico’s bill to increase higher education funding to be heard Monday

Sacramento – Less than one week after Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said California must invest more in higher education than prisons, Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico’s legislation to improve funding for California’s public universities and community colleges will be considered by the Assembly’s Revenue and Taxation Committee this Monday, January 11, at 1:30 p.m. in Room 126 at the state Capitol.

“The marches and protests we see on California campuses are a direct result of nonstop budget cuts and fee increases that have pushed students and faculty to the brink,” Torrico said. “We all benefit from a strong, well-funded higher education system that provides Californians the opportunity to fulfill their academic ambitions and trains the next generation of workers. As I have said many times throughout the state, and the Governor echoed in his State of the State address, we cannot have a healthy economy over the long-term if we spend more money on prisons than we do on higher education.”

Torrico’s AB 656, the Fair Share for Fair Tuition bill, would provide over $1 billion to higher education by levying an oil and natural gas severance tax. California is the only major oil-producing state without such a tax. Other oil producing states, such as Texas and Alaska, pump oil revenue into their higher education systems.

By contrast, in California budget cuts have resulted in staff and faculty furloughs, layoffs and rapidly escalating student fees. California State University trustees increased fees 10 percent in May and adopted a second 20 percent increase in July. University of California regents hiked fees 9.3 percent in the spring and approved a 32 percent increase in November.

“The status quo of budget cuts and fee hikes are devastating to the once-great reputation of our public universities,” Torrico said. “Thousands of students are turned away, students can’t get access to the classes they need to graduate and professors are furloughed. We can’t afford to slash university budgets when studies show the future need for college educated workers is outpacing the state’s ability to produce them.”

In just the past three months, over 40,000 supporters of the bill have signed on to the Fair Share for Fair Tuition Facebook page or turned in support cards backing AB 656.

The bill passed the Assembly Higher Education Committee in July.