Tuition Hike Sparks Riots At University of California

Embedded below is a 2 minute segment from the CBS Evening News last night about the outrage sparked at Berkeley, UCLA and other campuses following the announcement that the University of California is raising tuition by approximately $2,500 per student, to about $10,000 per year (not including room and board). But rather than just focus on the student riots, this piece makes surprisingly clear just how heavily subsidized public universities already are, as compared to private ones (whose annual tuition averages over $26,000), and that the majority of university students don't pay these full tuition fees anyway because they receive need-based financial aid. It also explains that this UC fee hike is variable, and that the greatest rise (of $2,500) will apply to only those students whose family incomes exceed $70,000 per year.

I light of all of that, the indignant sense of entitlement personified by the protesting UC Irvine student interviewed at the end of this piece is all the more remarkable. "They want us to bail out the UC system, and that's not our job. Our job is to get educated." So it's, what, my job?

And as an aside, what percentage of these angry, rioting students do you think applauded righteously at the Obama administration's decision to let the Bush tax cuts sunset in 2010, or at the proposed tax increases contained in the various health care reform bills currently being debated on Capitol Hill? (Somehow, the government taking more of your money without your consent seems a little less noble when they're suddenly thrusting their hands in your pockets.)

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