Convicts and College Kids

Yesterday I played the role of a high school counselor and attended the Cal State Counselors Conference in Long Beach.  I was filling in for someone who couldn't attend, and although I'm not a high school counselor, I thought this would give me a chance to get some valuable information for my son who plans to transfer to a Cal State next year.

The main subject that all the schools were talking about is "impaction", the inability of most schools to accept all the people who want to get in because they've been ordered to reduce enrollment due to state budget cuts.  Nearly every Cal State campus is impacted to one degree or another.  For some it's just for incoming freshman in certain majors, and others like nearby Cal State Fullerton are impacted for everybody in every major.

The Cal States have a mandate to accept anyone in their geographic service areas who meet the minimum admission standards, so even a marginal student can still get in their local Cal State university.  But if you want to transfer or attend a Cal State outside your area, you're going to have to show the school you can do more than just fog a mirror.  My daughter had no problem getting into Sonoma State University in 2007, but that's when the school was actively trying to expand their enrollment (and her grades would have gotten her in anyway).  Sonoma State even built a whole new campus housing village to handle all the new students - only to have the budget crackdown leave many of those beautiful new dorms sitting vacant.

My son has his sights set on Sacramento State, but for the first time in that school's history they will be impacted next year.  His GPA will certainly put him in good standing when he applies next week, and his major is not one of the impacted majors, but he'll be on pins and needles for awhile until we get an answer.  As a back-up he'll also be applying to Humboldt State, a small school like Sonoma State, which also has his major at at this point is not impacted for transfer students.  One way or the other he'll be headed to Northern California next Fall.

The title of this post relates to a comment made by the opening speaker at the conference, the president of Long Beach State (my wife's alma mater).  Toward the end of his remarks he said (and I may be paraphrasing this a bit): "We receive $5,200 per student (from the State), but they're paying $52,000 for every prison inmate.  Something is wrong here."

There are two ways to take that comment.  If he's saying we're paying too much for prison inmates, I agree, but he can thank the way-too-powerful prison guard's union for much of that.  However, if he's suggesting we need to pay more per student because we're paying so much for prisoners, that argument is all wet.  There's no valid connection between the two.

It costs a lot to house prisoners because the state is paying the full cost of housing and meals, medical care, some legal services, and security costs.  The state is 100% responsible for the expenses related to those people.  The same can't be said for college students.

College has almost become an entitlement in this state.  If the trustees propose even a small increase in fees the student activists go nuts with all kinds of protests and other nonsense.  Nowhere in our state's constitution is there a guarantee of a cheap college education.  If costs are a problem for a student there are a multitude of avenues available to them to remedy that situation.  Millions and millions of dollars are available in grants, loans and scholarships to needy students, and the better that student has performed in their academic work the better their chances of getting some of that money.

There's also no right in this state to do all four years of your college schooling at the same university.  Community colleges are very inexpensive and a student can knock out the first two years of their general education studies for next to nothing before transferring to the more expensive four-year university.  That's what my son is doing and when he graduates the diploma will still have the name of the four-year school on it even if the first two years were at a community college.  For students who may not be ready financially or otherwise for a four-year school, or who are not sure what they want their major to be, community college is a terrific option.

However, I balk when I hear university presidents suggest the taxpayers are not carrying their share of the load.  It's not my responsibility to educate your kid - that's your job.

Either that or send them to prison.