It was supposed to be a quiet, non-eventful speech. No prime time coverage and none of the pomp and circumstance that typically accompanies such events. With another bruising budget battle expected, high unemployment still looming and a stubbornly sluggish economy, the State of the State was a foregone conclusion: not good. There was little a lame-duck Governor could say to give Californians any semblance of hope for the future \u2013 or so we thought. In a span of minutes, the actor-turned-Governor said something that was not part of the script we expected to hear. He actually said something significant, something with promise. Suddenly, he sounded like the candidate of years past who was going to rush Sacramento, terminate the partisan politics and rescue the State from wasteful spending.
For a moment, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger got us thinking about a brighter future again \u2013 a future where higher education is a priority in the Golden State. He not only vowed to spare higher education from further cuts; he actually enlisted the support of the legislature to increase funding for higher education. That\u2019s right. Making the case that California should not be spending less on universities than it spends on prisons, Governor Schwarzenegger vowed to prioritize higher education. <\/p>\n
\u201cSpending 45 percent more on prisons than universities is no way to proceed into the future. What does it say about a state that focuses more in prison uniforms than caps and gowns? It simply is not healthy. I will submit to you a constitutional amendment so that never again do we spend a greater percentage of our money on prisons than on higher education.\u201d
A statement released by the Governor\u2019s office shortly after his speech pointed out that the State spends more than 10 percent of its general fund on prisons, compared with the seven percent currently allocated to higher education. Under the Governor\u2019s proposal, no less than 10 percent of taxpayer money would be spent on higher education and no more than seven percent would be allocated to the state\u2019s prison system starting as early as the 2014-2015 fiscal year.
Long Beach City College President Eloy Ortiz Oakley welcomed the Governor\u2019s initiative with open arms. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor years,” Oakley told the lbpost.com, “California has placed a premium on incarceration rather than education as evidenced by the increased spending on corrections versus education. I welcome the Governor\u2019s commitment to reverse this troubling trend and place a priority on what has historically made California the Golden State, education. I look forward to working with the administration to bring this commitment to fruition.\u201d
Speaking for all of California\u2019s Community Colleges, Chancellor Jack Scott said in a statement released by his office that, \u201cwisdom and common sense remind us that tipping the scales back in favor of fully funding education means that fewer Californians will land in a prison cell and we will reduce costs associated with larger prison populations.\u201d
In the end, it\u2019s just a proposal. It still needs the backing of the legislature. It still requires a Constitutional amendment. And, it\u2019s not the first time the State has considered mandating spending floors on education. But, for Long Beach City College and Long Beach State, it\u2019s the first time in some time that higher education has received the attention that it deserves \u2013 as a priority. What do you think about the Governor\u2019s initiative?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Making the case that California should not be spending less on universities than it spends on prisons, Gov. Schwarzenegger vowed to prioritize higher education during his recent State of the State address.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-5643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hi-lo","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5643\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5643"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=5643"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}