UC Compromise: Some Students Left Behind

Re “Schwarzenegger, Colleges Reach Budget Compromise,” May 11: Take from the poor and give to the rich. The governor’s pledge not to raise taxes is a political promise kept by raising fees for the college students. The rich, who can afford raised taxes, are getting richer at the expense of those who can least afford the increased fees. Then on top of that, the aid to the poor and needy is scaled back to keep the rich happy. Of course the rich are the ones who can contribute to political campaigns, not the poor.

Our schools and public-services needs keep getting bigger while taxes cannot give them the needed funds. It is time that the rich start paying more to maintain the services that we all need. The governor has said that things were worse than he had believed and there was not a lot of fat he could cut. He realized that the Gov. Gray Davis bond request was needed. Why can’t he see we need more income, and that includes an increase in the tax on the high-income taxpayers?

Jack Tatham

Irvine

Clark Kerr, the esteemed educator and architect of higher education in California, summed up his University of California presidency at a 1967 news conference: “In the history of the university, we’ve never turned away a qualified student from the state of California; I hope we never do. It will be a sad day when that happens.” The California high schools’ Class of 2004 is experiencing a very sad day, being turned away from California as a result of political compromise. Government and educational administrators have abandoned the Class of 2004, opting to use it as a political pawn.

This is a real-life bitter lesson in Advanced Placement state government. Now, the best and the brightest are leaving the state. This was not Kerr’s plan. Come on, governor and administrators, cut the politics; follow Kerr’s desires and don’t turn away those qualified in the Class of 2004.

Michael A. Meczka

Los Angeles