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102  While the number of Chicanas/os has grown, their access to academe has become more problematic. In 1955 the California college and university systems were the envy of the nation. More than half the 86,000 high school students graduating that June took advantage of the close-to-home campus arrangement. They had their choice of sixty public junior colleges, ten state colleges, and the giant University of California, with eight campuses. Fifty private four-year colleges and six private junior colleges were also available to those who could afford them. The educational code prohibited public junior colleges from turning away students, so everyone had a chance. The junior college education was free, the state college students paid no more than forty dollars a year, and the University of California tuition was eighty-four dollars.1 By the mid-1960s, Republicans clamored for raising fees for out-of-state residents to pay for rising professor salaries. To shift the cost of social production to the students ’ families, Republicans proposed raising resident fees by $100.2 The California Taxpayer’s Association called for a $200 annual fee per student attending state colleges, as well as drastic cuts in wages of the University of California professors. They also called for deep cuts in poverty programs and adult education.3 In 1967 the legislature cut 10 percent of the budgets of state colleges and the University of California. Meanwhile, Governor Ronald Reagan dismantled California’s mental health system. Reagan put more pressure on legislators to impose tuition to make up for the shortfall in the state colleges and the University of California system. While higher education resisted the tuition hikes, the University of California Regents, appointed by the governor, proposed cutting student enrollment. Aware of student discontent, Reagan proposed money for scholarships for low-income students and raising student parking fees. He called the backlash to his proposal of raising fees from $200 to $400 “shocking.” Reagan’s approach was to “get rid of undesirables. Those there to agitate and not to study might think twice before they pay tuition. They might think twice how much they want to pay to carry a picket sign,”he said.4 Growing a Program c h a p t e r 6 Reagan’s actions mobilized thousands of public school teachers and college and university students against his policies. Reagan asked the state’s 169,000 workers to forgo their Lincoln and Washington holidays and kick back their usual extra pay. In reaction, 3,000 University of California students marched on Sacramento. Educators countered that education was a good investment, with graduates paying more taxes. Indeed, if fees were increased, the University of California would be the fifth most expensive public system in the nation.5 The Democrats in the legislature blocked the proposal. Some legislators blamed the crisis on the acceptance to four-year colleges of “unprepared” minority students . At best this was simplistic. Los Angeles Times reporter Mary Barber showed other factors: “From Claremont on the east to California State College at Los Angeles on the west, San Gabriel campuses are inundated with a new species—the woman over 35 who is returning to school after devoting several years to home and family.” The trend of women enrolling in institutions of higher education statewide and changes in the economy were making the two-salary household a necessity. Moreover, younger women were no longer willing to be subsidized in education and enrolled in better paying majors leading to medical and law degrees.6 Reagan proposed a plan of deferred tuition. It was opposed by California State Chancellor Glenn Dumke and University of California President Charles Hitch. Assemblyman John L. E. Collier (R-Pasadena) labeled the Reagan plan “learn, earn and reimburse.” UC fees would have increased from $330 to $1,330 a year.7 The privatization of higher education had begun: In 2009 California State University undergraduates paid $4,155 per year and rising. The tuition for the University of California undergraduates cost about $8,720 annually. (In 2010 it would be over $10,000.) The solution to the shortfall was one way of eliminating the poor and the dark-skinned students from four-year universities and colleges. Chicanismo and the Growth of Chicano Studies Part of the attraction of Chicano Studies to working-class Chicana/o students was identity. In California the growth was based on the Educational Opportunity Program making education affordable. In the late 1960s this was less so in Texas...

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