University of California announces plan to raise tuition

By Dan Whitcomb LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The University of California on Thursday proposed to hike tuition up to 5 percent annually over the next five years at its 10 campuses unless the state kicks in additional funding, part of what it called a "fee stability plan." The tuition raises would end what Janet Napolitano, the UC president, called a "boom and bust funding model" and allow the college system to enroll 5,000 more California students every year, add faculty and courses and boost graduation rates. But the plan, which goes before the Board of Regents later this month, seemed aimed in part at goading Governor Jerry Brown and state legislators into boosting funding for the jewel of California's higher education system. "Thanks in part to actions taken by state leaders, our economy is back on track. It's now time for the state to reverse cuts in investment to educate Californians," Napolitano, former Secretary of Homeland Security under President Barack Obama, wrote in a Sacramento Bee editorial with Bruce Varner, chairman of the Board of Regents. "We intend to make this case in Sacramento and throughout the state, and we urge Californians to do the same," Napolitano and Varner wrote. Brown in 2012 campaigned for a voter-approved ballot measure that increased income taxes on the state's highest earners and temporarily hiked sales taxes to help fund California's public schools, colleges and universities. That initiative, Proposition 30, was sold to voters as an alternative to raising tuition. "The governor remains opposed to a tuition hike on students," H.D. Palmer of the state Finance Department said. "The increased funding is contingent on tuition remaining flat." He also said focusing on California's improved revenue picture did not take into account the whole budget picture. "That's one side of the ledger. We also have pressures on expenditure side," he said. "This is just a proposal, it has to be brought before the regents this month and we will see what the regents choose to do with it." Under the UC's proposal, tuition fees would go up by as much as 5 percent per year for the next five years as long as the state provided a promised 4 percent increase in funding. The tuition hikes would be lower if the state added to that amount. (Reporting by Dan Whitcomb, Bernard Orr; Editing by Doina Chiacu)