To the editor: Columnist George Skelton is right to call for supporting college education as an investment in our future. Too many politicians, business leaders and voters focus solely on today, burning our hopes in their desire to warm their hands over the ashes.
I would extend Skelton's suggestion that free tuition apply beyond universities. We desperately need vocational schools for those who want to become cooks, carpenters and technicians, all essential careers that are not going away. California should support schools that educate these workers.
Ideally, the courses in such schools would extend beyond the strictly necessary subjects to include some important topics useful in life. For example, a two-year program might include required courses in civil society and personal finance. This would help build an informed and reflective citizenry, prepared to adapt to the numerous changes that are inevitable throughout life.
Geoff Kuenning, Claremont
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To the editor: Many of you may not remember, but there was a time in the 1950s when you could attend Santa Monica City College tuition-free.
If you took the right courses and earned a “C” average, you could be admitted to UCLA, where there was no tuition and only $46 in student fees, which included a football season ticket. That's when UCLA won a national championship.
Where did we go wrong?
Ben L. Holmes, Ketchum, Idaho
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To the editor: I agree with Skelton about free tuition. As he points out, a significant amount of money from tuition increases has been used to fund aid to students in need. This is a shift of hidden costs (a tax) towards the richest families. They have numerous options for college, but generating income requires high enrollment rates for their children.
This explains the arms race to build fancy new dormitories, social centers and sports facilities, which costs all students, including those with limited resources.
What is not addressed are four-year graduation rates, which schools tend to deemphasize in favor of their six-year graduation rates. Schools with poor fiscal management take shortcuts and many of their students, especially those from low-income families, are unable to obtain the courses needed to graduate on time. Then, your credit debt grows.
University administrators, working with our state Legislature, have created a hidden tax on the upper classes, whose members actually pay full tuition. Sacramento surely wastes more than the $7.7 billion generated annually in tuition and fees at state universities.
Howard C. Mandel, Los Angeles
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To the editor: Congratulations to Skelton for his column promoting free tuition in California. My four siblings and I were fortunate to have this arrangement when we attended college.
Our parents were Italian immigrants. The four boys became engineers and my sister graduated with honors in library science. In exchange for funding our education, the State and the country got a designer of drones and cruise missiles, a mechanical engineer who helped take photographs of Cuba during the missile crisis, a designer of electronic amplifiers, and an expert in languages and libraries.
What Skelton should expose are the outrageous salaries cut by the leaders of these schools. We need a reset of these salaries and we need to cut literally dozens of vice presidents, vice chancellors, and other administrators. I saw the waste firsthand during my 30 years on the California State University campus.
Dan Roberto, Pasadena
