By Timothy Kudo
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Gov. Gray Davis signed next year’s $99.4 billion budget
June 30, with education at the top of the list of the biggest
expenditures ““ totalling nearly half of the entire
budget.
“In my State of the State Address, I laid down a call to
arms on behalf of our schools. This budget answers that
call,” Davis said in a statement. “In a budget with so
many winners, by far the biggest winners are our school
children.”
The budget gives $32 billion to K-12 education, a $4.2 billion
increase from last year, and $10 billion for higher education,
including the UC, California State University System and Community
College System.
There is a $486 million, or 17.9 percent increase to the
UC’s budget, which now totals $3.2 billion.
“This budget allows us to maintain access to a
high-quality, affordable education for all UC-eligible students
while also making strategic investments in research, health care
and outreach to California’s elementary and secondary
schools,” said UC President Richard Atkinson in a
statement.
Since a large portion of the University of California’s
budget is going to K-12 programs, UCLA’s budget increase
won’t approach the UC’s 18 percent increase, said Steve
Olsen, vice chancellor of budget and finance.
But Olsen added there would be a state-subsidized $400 increase
per student next year as part of UCLA’s $2.4 billion budget
that funds education, research as well as the hospital.
In preparation for the children of the baby boomer generation,
which will create an influx over the next 10 years of about 60,000
students, the state has begun funding UC’s summer school.
University officials hope that by making summer as affordable as
the rest of the year, students will be encouraged to attend it and
as a result, graduate earlier than four years and a quarter, the
average time it takes students to complete their degree.
Traditionally, taking the equivalent number of summer school
classes has cost students more than if they took them during the
year because the cost of instruction hasn’t been subsidized
by the state. The change is scheduled to take effect next year.
The budget also provides for a 2 percent raise plus additional
money for merit raises, according to UC spokesman Brad Hayward.
“The priority for that augmentation is compensation for
lower paid staff employees,” he said.
Money is also provided for a
1 percent raise for faculty to account for market
competitiveness, Hayward added.
According to Hayward, even members of the senior management
group, which encompasses the highest-paid employees of the
university like Atkinson and Chancellor Albert Carnesale, are only
eligible for the same raises other UC employees may receive.
Last year, after the regents voted 10-3 to give top-level UC
employees pay raises as large as 8.5 percent, unions and many
students reacted with outrage.
As part of a program to improve the quality of undergraduate
education, largely through the improvement of the
student-to-faculty ratio, the budget allocates $6 million to the
university. The university’s plan is to increase that amount
to $50 million per year.
The UC’s goal is to lower the current 18.7-1 ratio to
17.6-1.
Funding is also provided for graduate students through
research-related funding which totals about $60 million.
For UC medical centers, there is a one-time $75 million
allocation for equipment purchases, $50 million for infrastructure
needs, and $600 million in bond revenues for earthquake-safety
renovations.
There is also $75 million for the creation of three California
Institutes for Science and Innovation that will allow students,
faculty and industry scientists to do research important to
California’s economy.
UC campuses have submitted proposals to have an institute built
on their campus but currently, a decision hasn’t been
made.
UCLA’s proposal, which was made in conjunction with UC
Santa Barbara, calls for the creation of a nanoscience
institute.
“This is focused on the realm of the very small,”
Olsen said.
About $300 million of the UC’s budget will go toward K-12
outreach programs to improve the quality of the state’s
public education and attract underrepresented minority students to
the university.
Part of that amount includes $8 million that will go toward the
development of courses that students can take regardless of where
they are, and expansion of Advanced Placement test programs the UC
offers. There is also $71 million being spent to improve the
quality of California teachers.
Davis credited this year’s hefty budget on the
state’s booming economy.
“As Californians, we are privileged to be living in a time
and place of boundless prosperity,” he said. “This
budget will help to ensure that California’s prosperity is
shared by the very people who created that success.”
2000-2001 STATE BUDGET BREAKDOWN The UC
received a 17% increase including funding to reduce the cost of
summer school, eliminate a fee hike, improve the quality of
undergraduate education, and provide raises for employees in low
paid positions. SOURCE: 2000-2001 State Budget and UC Office of the
President Original Graphic by ADAM BROWN/Daily Bruin Web Adaptation
by CHRISTINE TAN