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Many Californian citizens have donned their worry caps…and justly too. They are all concerned with the alarming impact of hike in tuition fees due to budget cuts and class availability on the quality of education and access for students. According to them, we may have to face long term consequences due to the brain drain as a result of this situation in the State’s universities and public colleges.

Students voiced their concern and fear by holding a mock funeral for the death of higher education in the State at the Sacramento State University. According to most of the students, it is really sad to see an increase in the fee and decrease in the standard of education. According to Brice Harris, the Chancellor of Los Rios Community Colleges, there is definitely a brain drain happening and a lot of students are forced to leave the state and look for affordable opportunities elsewhere.

Even though Jim Blackburn, the Enrolment Director of CSU insists there are no indications of brain drain and enrolments are quite high speaking for the affordability and quality of education in the State, students claim otherwise.

Colleges from other states are capitalizing on this golden opportunity, enticing students with offers of exactly what they want. For example, South Oregon University is trying to rope in as many students from California by waiving out-of-state tuition fee. 

This situation may have long term ramifications. Companies may not really find California attractive any more with its lack of educated workforce. We know that for decades, California has offered high quality education at affordable cost to high school graduates and has been attracting a lot of students from other states and countries. This in turn was directly responsible for the boost in the economy of the state. The current situation may actually reverse the process at a time when the state needs many educated workforce to survive.

According to Public Policy Institute of California demographer Hans Johnson, the State of California is definitely moving in the wrong direction closing gaps in education skills. Students closer to their home campuses will be given preference in community colleges. This situation has made transfer for students in four year schools difficult. 

At the CSU, the number of applications for courses has reached a record high. Students find no place in UC and CSU schools and are looking elsewhere for other options. It may however be too early to determine long term trends. Even with the increase in fee structure, there has been a huge demand for colleges in California.

It is evident public colleges in the State of California are poised to produce fewer graduates and more debts, especially at a crucial point of time when the state really needs more number of graduates. The only solution could be to rope in students who have done schooling elsewhere, graduate from California and settle down to work here. We can only wonder at the outcome and time will definitely tell!