To the editor: Columnist George Skelton is correct to call for supporting college education as an investment in our future. Too many politicians, enterprise leaders and voters are centered solely on at this time, burning up our hopes of their want to heat their arms over the ashes.
I might lengthen Skelton’s suggestion of free tuition to use past simply schools. We desperately want vocational colleges for individuals who wish to turn out to be cooks, carpenters and technicians, all important careers that aren’t going away. California ought to assist colleges that educate these staff.
Ideally, programs in these colleges would lengthen past the strictly needed topics to incorporate just a few essential subjects helpful in life. For instance, a two-year program may embody required programs in civil society and private finance. This might assist construct an knowledgeable, considerate citizenry ready to adapt to the various adjustments which can be inevitable over a lifetime.
Geoff Kuenning, Claremont
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To the editor: A lot of it’s possible you’ll not keep in mind, however there was a time within the Nineteen Fifties when you might attend Santa Monica Metropolis Faculty with no tuition.
Should you took the proper programs and acquired a “C” common, you might get admitted to UCLA, the place there was no tuition and solely $46 in pupil charges, which included a season soccer ticket. This was when UCLA received a nationwide championship.
The place did we go fallacious?
Ben L. Holmes, Ketchum, Idaho
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To the editor: I agree with Skelton on free tuition. As he notes, a major amount of cash from elevated tuition has been used to fund support to needy college students. This can be a hidden price shift (a tax) onto wealthier households. They’ve quite a few choices for school, however excessive enrollment charges of their youngsters are required to generate income.
This explains the arms race to construct new fancy dorms, social facilities and athletic amenities, which prices each pupil together with these with restricted assets.
Not addressed is four-year commencement charges, which colleges have a tendency to not emphasize in favor of their six-year commencement charges. Colleges with poor fiscal administration reduce corners, and plenty of of their college students, particularly these from lower-income households, can’t get the programs required to graduate on time. So, their mortgage debt grows.
College directors in partnership with our state Legislature have created a hidden tax on the higher courses, whose members really pay full tuition. Sacramento absolutely wastes greater than the $7.7 billion generated yearly in tuition and charges at state universities.
Howard C. Mandel, Los Angeles
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To the editor: Kudos to Skelton for his column selling free tuition in California. My 4 siblings and I have been fortunate sufficient to have this association after we have been attending faculty.
Our mother and father have been Italian immigrants. The 4 boys grew to become engineers, and my sister graduated with honors in library science. In return for funding our schooling, the state and nation acquired a designer of drones and cruise missiles, a mechanical engineer who helped take photos over Cuba through the missile disaster, a designer of digital amplifiers and a language and library skilled.
What Skelton ought to expose are the outrageous salaries pulled down by the leaders of those colleges. We want a reset of those salaries, and we have to in the reduction of on the actually dozens of vice presidents, vice chancellors and different directors. I noticed the waste firsthand throughout my 30 years at a California State College campus.
Dan Roberto, Pasadena
