Stunned by cost of college tuition

It's that time when parents of college age students are writing checks for tuition!! When my daughter, N., signed up for San Francisco State the semester tuition was $2500. By June 27, it had climbed to $2844. July 7 she paid $2960. She was told that she would receive an email telling her that her tuition would increase 14 percent before school even started.

Remember when college in California was affordable? We went to state universities for a solid education at a reasonable cost. This generation is being thrown to the wolves with fee hikes and tuition increases that seem to come from nowhere—unless you follow the state budget.

Ah, the state budget! The bane of everyone's existence who is working or having to live with education in California. Though the government has decided not to touch K-12 education for this year, the UC and CSU systems have been hit, yet again, with budget cuts. So many young people have to drop out or delay their degrees due to the cost of college.

I see N. struggling with money issues. She is good with her money. She has worked hard, attended community college to make the whole thing more affordable, shared housing, saved money. God, I love that girl's practicality!

But she is 22 and just starting the university phase. The money I had saved for her to attend a four-year college was not enough by the time she was ready to enter. It was demoralizing to us both. Then came the market crash, and we were further behind. As a teacher, I received a nine percent pay cut around the same time. Because she attended a community college, we were able to recoup our losses.

The thing that gets me is, the funding for all education, K-college, is contingent on the economy's recovery. If California does not raise enough in revenue, everything will change—again. K-12 education will lose days, university tuition will rise again. I wonder if any one of the Republican legislators thinks about the impact of their actions, their refusal to grant the tax extensions and how it affects us. Probably not—they have other ways to pay for college.