By Noah Grand and Benjamin
Parke
Daily Bruin Reporters
Gov. Gray Davis cut by half the amount the University of
California requested for the expansion of student retention in
Wednesday’s unveiling of his state budget proposal.
While the 2001-2002 budget that Davis sends to the California
legislature largely conforms to UC requests ““ providing funds
to keep student fees for California residents at their current
level and raise staff salaries, for example ““ Davis’s
proposal of $3 million for student retention falls short of the $6
million the UC wanted.
“To break it down to three million is extremely
disappointing,” said Debbie Davis, chair of the University of
California Students Association. “Divided by nine campuses,
that’s not a lot of money.”
UCSA had focused on the issue in its lobbying efforts last year
with the UC Board of Regents, partially as a way of retaining
underrepresented students. The money would go to student services
such as counseling, tutoring and disabled student services.
“I can guarantee that we will be knocking at the
governor’s door and impressing upon him the need for student
services,” said UCSA’s Davis.
When asked about the difference in allocations, a spokeswoman
for Davis said higher education has long been a priority with the
governor, but that “ultimately it comes down to tough
choices.”
“Most entities that do get funds from the state often get
lower allocations than they had hoped for in the budget,”
said Hilary McLean, spokeswoman for Gov. Davis.
The university was happy that the governor decided to provide
funds for student retention, said UC spokesman Brad Hayward, adding
that overall, “it’s a good budget for the core
operations of the university.”
In general, the governor did provide funding on top of his
Partnership Agreement with UC, in which the system is guaranteed a
base budget if it fulfills certain requirements. But not all of the
items on the wish list got the money.
“It’s really not surprising,” Hayward said.
“A lot of people agree that the economy is
cooling.”
But Davis did budget for a few things UC hadn’t asked for,
such as $33 million for a fourth California Institute for Science
and Innovation, to be located at the Berkeley campus.
Three institutes are to start up immediately, and all four are
intended to foster a new generation of technologies.
“We view that as good news,” said Hayward. “We
expect these institutes to have a major impact on the future of the
California economy.”
With the process just getting started, the state legislature
““ and even the governor ““ could be making significant
revisions to the budget by May.
As for UC student retention, late last year Assembly Budget
Committee Chair Tony Cardenas, D-Panorama City, said the UC’s
needs were probably closer to the $30 million the UCSA called
for.
In other parts of the budget, Gov. Davis focused largely on
primary education and energy.
“We are investing in our future, but we are doing so
without saddling future generations with unsustainable
costs,” Davis said in a speech announcing the budget.
One billion of the $104 billion budget will be spent on fixing
California’s power problems. Deregulation of the power
industry in California has led to increased electricity prices and
fears of blackouts throughout the state.
The governor outlined an eight-step plan so the state could
eliminate the power problem.
“This is a very prudent, responsible plan that invests in
the future,” Paul Koretz, state assemblyman for the district
that includes UCLA. “It does a great deal for education and
the energy crisis.”
The budget will add more than $1,000 in per-pupil spending.
Under this plan, per-student spending will reach the highest level
in California’s history.
Other parts of Davis’s education plan have been met with
more criticism.
The governor proposed adding 30 teaching days to the middle
school calendar, a prospect many legislators, including Koretz,
oppose.
“I think it will be logistically difficult to
implement,” Koretz said. “The idea may be tweaked and
come back at a future time.”
Davis also proposed spending $30 million to help recruit algebra
teachers. Statistics show that students who take algebra do better
in school, according to Koretz, but he warned that those statistics
may be inaccurate.
“It may just be that the students who take algebra are
smarter than the ones who don’t,” he said.
Other parts of the budget include an expansion of the Healthy
Families Program. The program currently provides health insurance
to children in low-income families. Davis would like to help
provide medical coverage for the uninsured parents of children
already covered by the program.
The budget will also add funding to help combat identity theft,
which includes crimes such as charging purchases to someone
else’s credit card.
Davis hopes this budget will be approved by the July 1
deadline.
“The last couple of years he has had very good luck of
approving the budget in timely fashion,” Koretz said.
“He’s taken more of a bipartisan approach.”
It requires a two-thirds majority of both houses to approve the
budget, so Democrats and Republicans must work together for the
budget to be approved.
While Koretz predicts conflict in approving some parts of the
budget, he said a lot of it “will sail right
through.”