Restoring Opportunity: Taxing Wealth to Fund College For All in CA

"There was a time in the not-too-distant past when Californians could attend top tier research universities as well as state and community colleges without incurring student debt." (Photo: Joe Brusky/flickr/cc)

Restoring Opportunity: Taxing Wealth to Fund College For All in CA

New report finds initiative to restore the California state estate tax could make college accessible for millions of students in the state.

Decades of regressive tax cuts and subsequent budget cuts have undermined the rosy reality of higher education in California. Resulting tuition increases have shifted the cost of college on to students and their parents. Restoring Opportunity: Taxing Wealth to Fund College for All in California found that $18 billion in revenue has been lost to tax cuts for wealthy Californians since 2003, and over that same period, college tuition increased by 70 percent after accounting for inflation.

This report outlines the transition from a debt-free public higher education system to one where declining state support has led to a surge both in the number of students taking on debt and in the amount of debt they take on.

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