CSUN University News Clippings

California professional schools face shrinking state subsidies

(June 1, 2009)

By Laurel Rosenhall
Published: 05/31/09

For more than a century, the University of California turned out doctors, lawyers and entrepreneurs from some of the most prestigious – and affordable – professional schools in the country.

Affordability began to erode in the early part of this decade, when the state cut back its support for the professional schools and student fees jumped 30 percent. They’re rising even more in the next three years, with Berkeley’s law and business schools set to charge annual student fees of more than $47,000 in 2011-12.

Even that eye-popping price assumes the state will pay some of the cost of educating California’s future leaders. Now, as the state’s fiscal crisis deepens, that subsidy could also be at risk.

The question emerging from the public debate: Should money be spent educating students who ostensibly can afford massive loans because they may go on to make millions in their careers?

One fear is that larger debt loads will drive students away from careers in public service. And that could have long-term ramifications for society: More corporate lawyers and fewer public interest and government attorneys; more medical specialists and fewer pediatricians and family doctors.

Nonetheless, last week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed virtually eliminating state funding for Hastings, a UC law school in San Francisco. Earlier this month, the nonpartisan legislative analyst suggested the state phase out its support of all UC professional schools – including law, business, dentistry, medicine and veterinary medicine – as well as the California State University business schools.

Annual savings to California’s general fund: $10.3 million for not funding Hastings starting this fall and, in future years, $25 million for not funding other UC professional schools and $10 million for not funding CSU business schools.

Those proposals would amount to privatizing California’s most elite educational programs, forcing them to ask students and donors for even more support after a decade of skyrocketing fees.

It all comes amid a recession that is crippling state government and roiling the lives of millions of Americans. Many who look to graduate school to refresh skills or avoid a challenging job market will find themselves staring at higher bills.

But that same recession means drastic cuts must be made to close California’s $24.3 billion deficit.

The budget the governor signed in February reduced funding to UC and CSU by about 10 percent. With the failure of the May 19 ballot measures, Schwarzenegger has proposed cutting the universities’ funding by another 10 percent.

The legislative analyst suggests across-the-board cuts to the universities is the wrong way to go.

“We would place support for professional schools as one of the earlier cuts we would make rather than cutting core programs, which we consider undergraduate instruction,” said Steve Boilard of the Legislative Analyst’s Office.

Society benefits greatly from people getting a college education, Boilard said, with lower crime rates, higher employment rates and better health statistics.

“There are so many things that the public enjoys because of a bachelor’s degree,” he said. “But when you move higher than that – to a professional degree or a master’s degree – then it’s the individual who sees the benefit,” by earning a higher salary.

That’s an unfair generalization, according to some professional school deans. Doctors and lawyers make important contributions to society and aren’t always highly compensated.

Few lawyers, for instance, get rich prosecuting criminals, defending the poor or advocating for children, the disabled and elderly. Doctors make a good living caring for the sick, but not the big bucks they could make in plastic surgery, anesthesiology or other specialties.

“It’s troubling if the thought is, ‘These are going to be high-paid professionals, why should we care?’ ” said Jim Nuovo, an associate dean at UC Davis School of Medicine.

“Already there’s a problem with access to primary care services. It will get worse.”

law student Emilio Camacho is an example. He figures he’ll graduate about $100,000 in debt.

“And I’m considered one of the lucky ones because I received a big scholarship,” Camacho said. “Some students get nothing.”

In-state tuition at UC Davis law school was $28,515 in 2008-09. The school gave Camacho $21,000 in scholarships, he said. But he still needed to borrow about $20,000 to cover books and living expenses during his first year of law school.

Camacho, 28, has three children. While he was growing up in Mexico, no one in his family had gone to high school. He said he was inspired to become a lawyer at age 6, when he saw the Mexican president giving a speech on TV.

“As I grew up, I started to develop ideas about how bad things were in Mexico,” he said. “The legal system seemed to not work so well for the disadvantaged and the poor.”

At 16, Camacho moved to Sonoma County with his mother, a housekeeper. He attended community college, learned English and transferred to UC Davis.

This summer, Camacho is splitting his time between work in the Yolo County Counsel’s office and the Stoel Rives law firm in Sacramento. He’s not sure what kind of legal career he’ll pursue when he graduates in two years.

“I think some of the skills I have could be very useful in public service,” Camacho said. “But because of the debt I’m going to incur for my education, I’m forced to … seek the highest-paying job I can get so I can take care of my personal responsibilities which are paying my student debt, buying a home and being able to afford college for my children.”

To encourage students like Camacho to choose public service, many UC law schools use some money from the higher student fees to fund loan forgiveness programs for graduates who work in government and nonprofits. The UC Davis program pays back all loans for law school graduates who earn less than $40,000 a year and some loans for those who make up to $60,000.

But Dean Kevin R. Johnson said that growing debt loads still compel many graduates to go into the private sector. He figures the trend will only increase, so he’s busy seeking donations from foundations, alumni and private law firms to support students interested in public service work.

“The fees are going up, and the state support is going down,” Johnson said. “It’s unfortunate, but it’s a reality we’re dealing with.”

Sanjay Varshney, dean of the business school at California State University, Sacramento, sees it differently. A loss of state support would be good news for him if it were combined with the freedom to charge students more.

“I would love that,” he said. “I would welcome that.”

In order to make higher education affordable, CSU trustees have capped the amount their schools can charge students for business programs that receive state funding. The price for full-time CSU business students is going up this fall from about $5,000 a year to $10,000 a year.

But the schools can charge whatever they want for so-called “executive” programs that depend solely on funding from students. Sac State’s executive MBA costs about $33,000 a year.

Varshney said he’d be happy to build on that model.

“If the state allowed us to charge what the market could bear and then eliminated support, then I think we would be fine,” he said. “A private model would still survive.”

Becoming essentially a private school is less appealing to the leaders of Hastings College of the Law, which opened its doors in 1878 as California’s first law school and a department of UC. Funding for most UC law schools is channeled through each campus, but Hastings receives money directly from the state.

That makes it more susceptible than most professional schools to budget stress. The $10.3 million a year the state pays to Hastings was crossed off the proposed budget as the Schwarzenegger administration looked for more cuts after recent ballot measures failed.

“We are in an unprecedented situation in this state that has required us to put proposals forward that (previously) would have been considered unthinkable,” said H.D. Palmer, Schwarzenegger’s Department of Finance spokesman.

If the proposal is approved by the Legislature, virtually all state funding for Hastings – about $8,000 per student – would cease on July 1. That has shocked Hastings officials, who are still figuring out how to absorb the hit.

“Here we are, it’s almost the first of June,” said David Seward, the school’s CFO. “We have enrolled an entering class, they are going to begin instruction in the middle of August.”

Annual fees have been set at $32,468, and students’ financial aid packages have been finalized.

“We cannot raise our tuition $8,000 in a period of six weeks,” Seward said.

Publication: Sacramento Bee