In My Humble Opinion #2

In my last post, I discussed the California Bill 656 and how much it would be able to help California’s higher education system. Now I am truly angered by this whole situation, but on a more personal level, on a level that most people would not stop to think about. This past week, the University of California regents board voted to increase UC tuition 32 percent, much like the CSU board increased tuition 30 percent and made it effective this past fall semester. It was inevitable. What I am angry about though, is the amount of attention the UC hike is getting and how they held rallies against the tuition much like we, SJSU, did. Yet, when SJSU and other CSU schools held these rallies, it was not that big of a deal. The entire nation knows about the UC rallies, demonstrated by the Time Magazine article online yesterday.

It’s long been a standard that the University of California schools are “better” than the California State University schools. It is the stigma of being a state school that most students look down upon. I can remember being a junior in high school and all of the honors students bragging that they were going to apply to a UC because they did not think that a state school was good enough for them. I, on the other hand, knew that I would be going to a community college first, which was even lower than a state school. I was a smart high school student, and I could have gotten into a good number of good schools and gone. But I have frugal parents who believed that going to a community college was just as good. I thought so too. At 17, there was no way I was ready to go away to school and live on my own.

It makes me so angry when people STILL put down state schools. I truly believe that I am getting a fantastic education at San Jose State. From what I have heard from my friends who are at UC’s, the learning is more theoretical, less hands on. You cannot gain experience in a field unless you do it yourself. You can only learn so much from reading a book and writing papers. I’m not sure what it’s going to take for the students of California to realize that a state school education is just as good, if not better, than a UC education. Although with all of the budget woes of California, it is getting to the point that no one will be able to afford a higher education.