Written by
Nannette Miranda, ABC7
SACRAMENTO, CA - Fourth grade teacher, Lynette Simon, thought she saved enough to put her son through Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, but after numerous recent tuition hikes, the Central Valley mom is worried.
"It's not going to be enough to get him all the way through graduation," Simon said.
Relief may be on the way. Assembly Democrats introduced a middle class scholarship plan that would cut tuition at California's public universities by two-thirds.
About 150,000 CSU students and 42,000 UC students would qualify.
Depending on the campus, families would save from $16,000 to $33,000 during a four-year period, welcome news to Californians who've seen tuition spike well over 200 percent in the last decade.
"It's a little hard on my family," CSU Freshman Dylan McManus said. "So I've been trying to get more scholarships to help with that."
"Yeah, because people just need some help," CSU Sophomore Daniel Gibbs said. "That's just it. We need to help people now. Tuition is just too high."
However, as good as it sounds, it probably won't get approved by the Legislature because it needs a two-thirds majority.
In order to pay for the $1 billion program, Democrats want to rescind a tax break given to corporations as part of a 2009 agreement to temporarily raise taxes.
Republicans are reluctant to undo a deal that helps job creators and want to remind everyone, it's the Democrats who approved deep cuts to higher education that forced the tuition increases.
"It's interesting that when you have a tuition crisis created by Democrats not willing to cut one sector, but instead loading it up on higher education," Sen. Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar, said. "Now, they're trying to unwind another deal to help solve a problem they created."
Simon feels middle class families have given enough.
"I think corporations can give a little bit, just like everyone of us are giving right now, paying taxes and trying to better our children's lives."
Nannette Miranda
ABC7
ABC7/KGO