How to avoid stalemate on UC tuition

San Francisco Chronicle

The UC regents’ approval of a 5 percent tuition increase for each of the next 5 years breaches a deal and directly challenges Gov. Jerry Brown and the state Legislature to avert it by committing more money to the system.

It has all the makings of a disaster for either the students or educational quality — or both — if neither side backs down.

What would have been a difficult sell in any circumstance was inflamed by the way UC President Janet Napolitano presented it: effectively ambushing the governor and key legislators by rolling it out in public without trying to work out something behind the scenes.

The potential compromise here is readily apparent. If Napolitano can persuasively make the case that UC has done everything within reason to cut expenses and that its quality would suffer if it’s left with the 4 percent increase it has been promised in each of the next two years, then Sacramento should kick in more money to pare back the tuition increase to a more reasonable level.

But the families and taxpayers who are footing the bill deserve to know that UC has made a good-faith effort to produce the reforms that Brown has demanded. Napolitano has not done that.

Our concern is that egos might get in the way and a stalemate would result. The worst possible outcome would be that Brown and legislators withdraw the planned state funding increases and the regents hold firm to the 5 percent annual tuition increase.

[Source]: SF Gate