Part of the State of the State

In January of 2009, I made a presentation to the Board of Trustees of a University that I represent. Included in that presentation was the slide at the right. I was trying to make a visual point that the priorities of the state were out of whack.

Here is what the Governor said today about the relationship between higher education and our prison system. “But I am drawing this line. Because our future economic well-being is so dependent upon education, I will protect education funding in this budget. And we can no longer afford to cut higher education either. The priorities have become out of whack over the years. Thirty years ago 10 percent of the general fund went to higher education and 3 percent went to prisons. Today almost 11 percent goes to prisons and only 7 1/2 percent goes to higher education. Spending 45 percent more on prisons than universities is no way to proceed into the future. What does it say about a state that focuses more on prison uniforms than caps and gowns? It simply is not healthy. I will submit to you a constitutional amendment so that never again do we spend a greater percentage of our money on prisons than on higher education. “

It is not clear the the Governor includes student aid in his proposal, obviously, I hope he does. But I was interested to see him pick up this long term trend - which every Californian should be concerned about.