To the editor: Columnist George Skelton rightly emphasizes the importance of backing college education as a wise investment in our future. Many politicians, business leaders, and voters seem fixated on the immediate, sacrificing our future aspirations just to grab a fleeting moment of comfort.
I believe Skelton’s suggestion of offering free tuition should also encompass vocational schools. Professions like cooking, carpentry, and technical trades are indispensable and enduring. California should be eager to support the institutions that train these vital workers.
Ideally, education at these vocational schools would go beyond the bare essentials, incorporating subjects that add real value to people’s lives. Imagine a two-year program including mandatory courses in civil society and personal finance. Such an initiative could cultivate informed citizens ready to navigate the inevitable changes over their lifetimes.
Geoff Kuenning, Claremont
To the editor: Some of you might not recall, but back in the 1950s, attending Santa Monica City College came with no tuition costs. Achieving a “C” average in the right courses could grant you admission to UCLA, where the only cost was $46 in student fees, which even covered a season football ticket. Those were the days when UCLA clinched a national championship.
How did we drift so far off course?
Ben L. Holmes, Ketchum, Idaho
To the editor: I stand with Skelton on the topic of free tuition. He accurately points out that much of the increased tuition revenue is allocated to financial aid for students in need. This effectively shifts a hidden cost onto wealthier families, who, despite numerous college options, need their children to enroll in large numbers to maintain institutional revenue.
This situation fuels a competition among schools to erect luxurious dorms, social hubs, and athletic complexes, which raise costs for all students, including those struggling financially. Notably absent from the dialogue is the issue of four-year graduation rates, often overshadowed by six-year rates. Schools, particularly those with financial mismanagement, can overextend, leading to situations where many students—especially from lower-income backgrounds—struggle to enroll in necessary courses to graduate on time, thereby accumulating more debt.
University administrators, alongside the state Legislature, have inadvertently created a hidden tax on affluent families, forced to pay full tuition. Meanwhile, Sacramento likely squanders more than the $7.7 billion annually generated in tuition and fees at state universities.
Howard C. Mandel, Los Angeles
To the editor: Applause to Skelton for advocating free tuition in California. My four siblings and I were fortunate to benefit from this system during our college years.
Our parents, immigrants from Italy, proudly saw their four sons become engineers, while my sister graduated with honors in library science. The state’s investment reaped enormous returns, producing a drone and missile designer, a mechanical engineer pivotal during the Cuban missile crisis, an electronic amplifier innovator, and a language and library expert.
Where Skelton should shed light is on the exorbitant salaries pocketed by the top brass at these schools. A reevaluation of these salaries is necessary, along with pruning the ranks of numerous vice presidents, vice chancellors, and administrators. I witnessed firsthand the waste during my three-decade tenure at a California State University campus.
Dan Roberto, Pasadena
