A California Republican

Today and tomorrow, from 8am - 10am there will be a picket line at California State University Sacramento (CSUS). The faculty is going to picket, and they are encouraging students to come picket with them. What are they picketing for? They are picketing against the budget cuts to the CSU system - of course.

The CSUS faculty has to take furlough days, and they are unhappy about it. To show they are unhappy, many faculty are taking their furlough days on instructional days, rather than days they are not teaching. In this way, they are showing their high regard for their jobs and the students they teach - or not. Instead of simply taking the days on non-instructional days, the professors are taking furlough days on days they are scheduled to teach.

Why is there such a huge protest? Fees for an undergraduate, in-state student are still lower at the CSU system than they are anywhere else (except the military academies where they pay you to go there). The fees are very low, and you can get a full 4-year degree with the same amount of debt that someone at a private school will have for one year of education. But the fees are too high - according to the faculty and some students - so they are going to picket.

People have to cross the picket line. Classes start today. If you are not in class, you will lose your seat in the class. For many students, that means a loss of financial aid and possibly a loss of a job. This means people have to cross the line.

If the protest is about the lack of funding for the CSU system, then perhaps the faculty should also come up with where they would take the money from, in order to pay for increased funding at the CSU system. If they have no solution, and are simply protesting the cuts, then they shouldn’t be picketing.

The truth of the matter is that there simply is no money available. Why should California be funding a higher education institution when it cannot pay for roads or other education? Kids come to the CSU system needing so much remedial work in English and Math that there are programs created around the remedial work, tutors employed, and special classes for the students. If the remedial programs were cut, there would be a huge chunk of money to fund other things at the CSU system. But why should the state pay for this? Why should higher education be a public funding priority?

The professors cannot tell you that. They also cannot tell you where the money should come from. Instead, they are simply walking a picket line with not solutions - only complaints. It turns out that college professors are not so different from the rest of the world - they like to complain without solutions as well.

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