- Target:
- California State Government, Governor Schwarzenegger
- Region:
- United States of America
The public higher eduction system in California is the best, most affordable and most comprehensive in the nation. Five of the top twenty universities in the United States are CA public schools.
The state of California is facing a $24 billion budget shortfall right now. Thus, the entire university system statewide is facing approximately $800 million in budget cuts for the 2009-2010 academic year. These cuts will result in an immediate increase in tuition/fees, an increase in class size, salary cuts and workload increases for staff and thus an overall decrease in the quality of the system. This will drastically impact the state in a number of important areas, not least the quality of healthcare that the university health centers and hospitals provide to 3.6 million patients annually and access to a quality university education at a reasonable price, two basic human rights.
Education and the promotion of American, competitiveness and innovation is also deeply threatened by an attack on this university system. Collectively more Nobel Prizes have come out of the California system than any other and many of the most important innovators, scientists and artists in the US are alumni.
Maintaining the health of the California higher education system is supporting American academic excellence that we will need, now more than ever, to ask and answer the difficult questions that will continue moving us forward for years to come.
We, the undersigned, pledge our support for a strong public higher education system in California both now and in the future. In doing so we promote American innovation, research and academic excellence and those same values all around the world.
We urge Governor Schwarzenegger to find alternative solutions to resolve California's budgeting issues as have already been proposed by various members of the state legislature. We call on the Governor to publicly support the UC and Cal State systems by making their health a top priority.
We simply cannot afford to stand idly by and watch a cornerstone of the American educational system be damaged in this fashion.
You can further help this campaign by sponsoring it
The Save Californian Higher Education! petition to California State Government, Governor Schwarzenegger was written by Rachel Ginsberg and is in the category Education at GoPetition.