California Kids First: UC Proposes an Enrollment Cap for Out of State Students

We Californians want our students to have opportunities to attend the state’s top tier public university. In the past decade, it has become more difficult for California students to get into the University of California campus of their choice because many spots were going to students from out of state and even out of the country.

The main reason why the UC was favoring out of state students is the money that they bring in because they pay non-resident fees. For the 2016-2017 academic year, out of state students brought in an additional $550 million to the University of California.

According to a recent report from The Los Angeles Times:

“Last year, lawmakers threatened to hold back $18.5 million if the public university system did not put a cap on students from outside California.

On Monday, UC finally acted, proposing a 20% systemwide limit on nonresident undergraduate enrollment and vowing to continue to give Californians top priority. Nonresident students numbered 34,673 in fall 2016, 16.5% of the system’s 210,170 undergraduates.

The limit would be the first of its kind for the 10-campus public research university. But UC officials hope it will be enough to get state officials to release the funds.”

If the state’s higher education system were better funded, the UC wouldn’t have to rely on so many out of state students to help fund the institution.

California students deserve to have as many options as possible to attend the top tier university system because they and their parents pay taxes that help fund the institution. It’s also worth noting that as California high school graduates have become more Latino that the UC is grappling with having to cap the enrollment of out-of-state students. We want to see as many of our bright and UC eligible students have opportunities to attend the UC campus of their choice.

Since 2012, the number of non-resident undergraduates attending the UC has more than doubled from 16,929 to 34,673. California legislators have built in an $18.5 million incentive into the state budget to pay for enrolling an additional 2,500 California students into the UC this upcoming fall.

What do you think?

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We are Moms, Tias, Ninas and Play-Tias who love children in our lives and we want to help every child succeed in school. Navigating schools and education—from preschool to college—is hard. We want to help each other with this.
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