Ed News: Middle Class Squeeze

While not directly IBL related, this affects all of us at the college level.  The rising cost of college education is a growing concern.  UC Berkeley has announced that it will begin subsidizing the cost of education for middle class families.  That is, families with incomes between \$80,000 and \$140,000 per year will receive a reduction in tuition.  The annual cost of attending to a UC school is now up to $32,000 per year for California residents.

The original CA master plan intended to provide free college education for qualified students in CA.  That dream is over for good.  More importantly, the cost of education has risen to the point where even middle class families struggle to afford paying for public colleges.  This is not good if our best and brightest students are not able to attend our best public colleges in our state.  It means we ultimately are squandering chunks of our society's talent pool.  Not good.  More on this later.