Today I understand that you are holding several gatherings and events to protest the raise in fees at the schools you attend. I certainly sympathize with your cause. Being a product of California's public university system, I have experienced the high cost of education in person, and I imagine it is a much steeper cost today.
While I understand your anger and frustration, and I respect your right to protest, I'd like to offer a few suggestions. Your protests, while being vocal and getting some attention, are really a very small effort on your part, requiring very little work or thought. In addition, they are extremely unlikely to get any results. I was thinking this morning, while I was listening to stories of your actions, of a potentially more effective, though certainly more challenging, method of achieving something.
The complaints I hear are that there are so many less important expenses and so much government waste that there must be somewhere else to cut. While probably true, this argument is vague and ineffective. It comes off as whining and trying to push this economic problem on some other group.
My suggestion is to shut up and prove it. My challenge to you, the student body of all California public colleges and universities, is to show me the waste, show me the less important programs. You are collectively some of the best minds in the country. You have at your disposal some of the best economic minds in the world. Use them! Get a copy of the state budget and start digging. Go through every line item, label it, find places to cut, root out the waste. There are over 2 million students enrolled in the California public higher education system. Think you can do a better job than the state legislators? I think you can too. So stop making vague and nonspecific complaints about the system. Do our state government's job better than they can, publish your results, and show the state exactly how we can prevent raising your tuition fees.
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