California State University mulls 6% annual tuition hikes amid $1.5B deficit
HAYWARD – Almost every public institution is facing huge budget deficits these days and that includes higher education. But a proposal to impose a permanent, annual 6% increase in tuition at California State University is raising eyebrows across the state.
On Wednesday, the campus at Cal State East Bay was alive with activity as hundreds of potential transfer students arrived for an orientation event.
Statewide, the CSU system is facing a $1.5 billion deficit which they say is due to volatility in the economy.
So, in a statement, they propose a solution: "The CSU plans to remedy perennial underfunding and build stability into its budget by proposing a 6% annual tuition increase, which is $342 for the 2024-25 school year, its first year of implementation."
Nolan Calara, president of Cal State East Bay's Associated Students, said the plan is not going over so well for those who would be paying the bill.
"Price is a big...it's a major issue," Calara told KPIX. "In fact, a lot of the students who come here—to the CSU—for affordable tuition. And if we increase this tuition by 6% every year, what would make us different from the University of California schools?"
CSU said the Board of Trustees would review the tuition rate schedule every five years, but Calara didn't find much comfort in that.
"Once the tuition increases, there's no way they're going to go back to a lower tuition," he said. "Even though there's a consultation every five years, it still doesn't make me secure as a student that they're going to actually stop this six percent increase every year."
Dr. Sherry Hu, with a private college advising company called Beyond Academy, said many parents are unsure whether they will be able to afford college for their kids, even at the CSU level.
"Before, it's like, 'Oh, whatever my children can get into, we'll do our best to support them.' Now, they realize it'll become inhibiting," she said. "Honestly, the Bay Area is expensive, so sometimes the parents can have a hard time just to make ends meet. And now, you talk about educational costs for the children, for college? That is just one more layer of burden for them."
Parent Antonio Gamez understands that feeling, after sending his son Bobby through Cal State East Bay.
"Families are having a 6% increase every year, and they're only getting maybe one or two percent in their salaries and everything else is going up?" he said. "So, something has to fall through the cracks. And education shouldn't fall through the cracks, because education is...I think it's a right."
The question remains, how much of the burden should fall on students, anyway? The state is spending billions to bail out public transit without asking riders to pay more. But students and parents are expected to raise $850 million in the next five years to keep the colleges going.
"A dollar spent in the CSU is worth $7 in our economy when a student graduates," said Dominic Quan Treseler, President of the Cal State Student Association. "So, it's a really worthwhile investment for the state to be investing in our students. That's why we believe it's not necessarily only the responsibility of our students to be investing in their education."
The annual tuition hike is still just a proposal with a vote expected in September. Opponents said they are suspicious that the matter would be considered now, at a time when few students and faculty are on campus to protest it.
CSU points out that 60 percent of its students receive financial assistance and would not be subject to any tuition increases. But critics say that only means the entire burden will be on the backs of the remaining 40%.