[Occupymendocino] Higher Education - Just Another Liberty Taken Away

[Tammy Davis]

I am attending the last semester of classes, at CR here in Fort Bragg, that I need in order to transfer to a 4-year program. I completed my freshmen year at community colleges in San Diego (my hometown) back in 1986 and the cost of the so-called “non-tuition” tuition was $7 per credit hour. A writer for North County Times (San Diego County) wrote an article in Jan. 2010 that states the cost at that time was $26 per credit hour for California community colleges. The cost today, not three years later, is $46 per credit hour. Professors are forced to choose textbooks from an extremely narrow selection of very expensive, brand new editions. One of the latest trends is the availability of textbook rentals. This sounded like a pretty good thing to me initially, as I figured that for books that you know you will no longer want to keep after the semester is over, I might as well save money. Two of the books I am using now are rentals. One of them was not identified as a required text until the class started and it showed up on the syllabus. I had the option of renting a physical book or procuring an e-copy of the book, and the difference in price was minimal. I started to purchase the e-book as I needed the text right away. I noticed a few webpages into the transaction, that the e-book was also a rental (there was one sentence in small font under the button used to make the purchase). I was extremely frustrated and ended up ordering the regular book rental and had to wing it during the first couple weeks of class. $60 +/- for an e-copy of a book that I was not able to keep is outrageous! For this same class (an online class), The students are required to purchase access to an interactive companion website...and I believe that cost was $48. The CR website could have been used as the instructional aid, but then the cost couldn’t have been so easily passed on to the students. I was planning on transferring into an online degree program with Sonoma or Humboldt Universities, but even their online programs are cost prohibitive. So, only people that have enough money are entitled to higher education. And just think, California State Universities were free until Ronald Reagan took the office of Governor. When the powers that be were drafting up their plan for tuition costs

I’m not sure exactly where to start in fighting this issue, but I have done a little ground work and perhaps in the Spring, as I may not be continuing with classes right away, I will dig my heels in. I have attached an article that I found on the CR website which outlines just the cuts to education this past year. The other attachment is the article I mentioned above which talks about community colleges that offer four-year degree programs...which I think in rural areas especially there is a critical need.

Sorry, I tend to be long-winded,
Tammy
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20121012/47ac7959/attachment-0001.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Govt Cuts to Education 2012.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 127046 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20121012/47ac7959/attachment-0001.pdf 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 4 year degrees from communitie colleges (Jan2010).doc
Type: application/msword
Size: 32768 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20121012/47ac7959/attachment-0001.doc