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Echoing the sentiments of many, University of California’s President Clark Kerr noted that educating the young is the best investment made by our society. In California, the public as well as state leaders have always been in agreement with this viewpoint.

This state has forever received enough political and financial support towards its higher education system. For virtually everyone, college education and the resultant prosperous and productive life were very affordable and accessible.

Eventually, with this kind of support, California became a success platform for those willing to put in enough effort. The prosperity of our nation is reflected by California its innovative economy. This state till today remains at the top of the list in terms of gross domestic products among many nations.

The past decade however has seen growing, systematic disinvestment by the public and this is a huge cause of concern. Students are facing undue financial hardships especially due to reduced state support. Higher education has seen a lot of repeated increase in tuition and fee.

Our campuses today are filled with revolts and protests against this constantly rising fee and students today are highly frustrated over their personal debt obligations. Students are facing a dismal post-graduation job market even as universities are contracting. The situation is far from promising.

In California, the crisis is still worse as apart from the higher education situation, the economic future of the state is in jeopardy. We certainly stop investing in our future the moment we stop investing in higher education. How then could Californians remain a diverse and dynamic economy? It is after all, our higher education that has got us here.

We are severely hampering California’s growth buy holding back students. They are not provided with enough knowledge and skills necessary to survive in a competitive 21st century global economy.

In California, more numbers of students are graduating now than ever before. This is good news. However, very few of these students enrol in the state’s universities and public colleges and this is definitely bad news.

Especially at a time when this state needs more number of skilled workforces to develop economically, there is going to be an alarming loss of graduates if the present trend persists. Unless the graduation and enrolment rates increase, California will fall short of at least one million college graduates by the year 2025.

The need of the hour is therefore fresh, sustained commitment from the public as well as from the elected leaders. One encouraging factor is California governor Jerry Brown’s proposal to increase higher education investment by $60 million in spite of the state being $16 billion in the red under the revised budget proposal.

The downside of this is his statement that both California State University and UC may have to deal with forced cut of $250 million if his proposal for temporary raise of high earner’s sales tax and income tax is defeated in November by voters. If this happens, the consequences will be disastrous. It is certainly not fair on students to carry this additional burden.