Napolitano spurs needed debate on UC finances, management

By U-T San Diego Editorial Board

The University of California’s finances and management are about to get the intense dissection they’ve long deserved, prompted by a power play by UC President Janet Napolitano.

Since state revenue sharply dropped a half-dozen years ago, we’ve seen near-annual fights over whether UC should hike tuition. But when Jerry Brown returned as governor in 2011, he brought a new perspective, asking pointed questions about whether UC had truly tried to reduce nonessential spending.

Enter Napolitano. The former Arizona governor and homeland security czar took over as UC president in September 2013. In recent months, she’s made it plain she will be far less deferential than her predecessors. Napolitano persuaded UC regents to tentatively commit to five years of 5 percent annual tuition increases that would cumulatively total 28 percent. Presently, UC students pay about $12,000 a year, not including room, board, instructional materials and other mandatory costs.

But Napolitano made two rookie mistakes. She refused to comply with a 2013 state law that requires UC to offer far more detailed explanations of how it uses its various sources of funding — giving credence to Brown’s doubt about whether the UC system had even tried to find efficiencies. And the UC president appeared to belittle the idea that higher student fees would be onerous for middle-class families, noting that tuition was free for students whose families made less than $80,000.

Napolitano doesn’t know many middle-class California families. Even with other UC programs that provide tuition help for families making up to $150,000 a year, tuition costs are an enormous burden on families that may appear affluent to someone from cheaper Arizona. That’s why so many California kids from families that Napolitano seems to think are rich are forced to take out huge student loans.

Now she’s getting the blowback she deserves. On Monday, Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, announced the 2015-16 UC budget would be subject to a “zero-base” assessment of every significant spending category and said she was categorically opposed to tuition hikes for California students.

On Tuesday, Senate President Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, announced support for a five-year freeze on in-state tuition. De León and Sen. Marty Block, D-San Diego, unveiled a plan that would direct new funds to UC by sharply raising tuitions on out-of-state students, among other provisions.

The news is far from all bad for Napolitano. Both Atkins and de Leon support more state funding for UC, which Napolitano previously said could prompt regents to reduce or eliminate tuition hikes.

But with the governor and the Assembly speaker demanding financial transparency — and a 2013 state law making it a legal requirement — taxpayers should finally get a peek inside UC’s ledgers. Given how hard university officials have resisted scrutiny, we suspect plenty of waste will be found.

This won’t just undermine Napolitano’s argument that years of substantial tuition hikes are essential to UC’s survival. It will hurt her credibility with everyone from UC students and faculty to watchdog agencies and state leaders.

[Source]: The San Diego Union-Tribune