In the lingo of Twitter, California’s new State Assemblyman Rocky Chavez gleefully posted the following status update on a bill he’s sponsoring:
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AB 13 – my bill to grant #Veterans in-state tuition – just passed out of Asm. Vets Affairs Committee! Next stop, Assembly Approps
I found this Tweet rather unsettling. As I see it, this Rocky Chavez bill is a bad start for our new San Diego County GOP Assemblyman — elected last year to a safe, gerrymandered Republican district.
If one is a Republican in the CA state legislature, it’s hard to get any bill passed by the Democrat-controlled legislature. Every GOP state legislator well knows how frustrating this can be. After all, it’s human nature to want to accomplish something by getting a bill passed.
Rookie Republican State Assemblyman Rocky Chavez was quick to discover the secret to legislative “success” — submit a bill for a new or expanded subsidy. Now THAT’s something Democrats can get behind! After all, these clueless donkeys are convinced that our state is AWASH in taxpayer revenue. Doling out more subsidies is the favorite pastime in Sacramento.
Such is the case with Rocky’s bill above — AB 13. And, after all, don’t we owe our veterans?
Well, yes. And no.
To start with, we have a volunteer military. For most, the pay is good and the benefits are generous — at least it’s sufficient to fill our ranks with the needed quality volunteers. Prospective recruits are fully informed regarding the military’s popular education benefits — still called “the GI bill” — paid for by the grateful American taxpayers.
A four year veteran can receive almost $1,500 a month while going to college full-time — for up to 36 months. That’s a pretty darn generous benefit, one which they certainly earned.
My concern is that this state bill will encourage more people who are NOT California residents to come here to be FURTHER subsidized as an in-state resident. Each such recipient will cost CA taxpayers many more thousands of dollars per year in education costs (tuition covers a small fraction of the cost per student) — and often results in one more CA resident unable to gain admission to a CA public college. We can’t provide schooling for our EXISTING in-state population — we don’t need to go recruiting for additional subsidized students.
While tuition for our four year colleges and universities is approaching the national average, that can be deceiving. Our UC schools have a remarkable program where most in-state students (especially those who are no longer being subsidized by their parents) with less than an $80,000 income will pay ZERO state tuition.
And while our community college tuition (called fees in CA) is now up to almost half the national average, over a third of our community college students will declare “hardship” and end up paying zero tuition. Most such vets probably qualify for this giveaway, even though they get the GI Bill cash flow.
Moreover, it’s not like we have some sort of labor shortage in California. Currently we have the third highest unemployment rate in the nation! Educating more people for jobs might be a benefit to the OTHER states who receive many of today’s California college graduates, but it’s not helpful to the Golden State.
Rocky, good intentions are not enough. After all, there are an endless number of causes and “needy” people who “deserve” further funding. But our state’s finances are in disarray — in large part precisely because of such muddled thinking. Your top priority should be fiscal prudence — not trying to find new ways to drain Sacramento’s coffers.
I must say, Rocky Chavez’s chosen course is very disappointing. I had expected better.