UC schools could hike tuition

SAN DIEGO (KUSI) – A fiery battle may be shaping up over tuition hikes at UC schools.

The president of the UC system has unveiled a proposal that would increase tuition over the next five years.

If you got to a school like UCSD, the cost of tuition rose sharply in the last decade, and has remained the same over the last three years.

That may be changing soon.

Call it a shock to the University of California system, and the students enrolled at the ten UC campuses.

The President of the University of California, and former Homeland Security Chief, Janet Napolitano, is recommending a tuition hike of up to five percent in each of the next five years.

Students like Amani Proctor say raising tuition could push college out of reach for low income and middle class families.

UC officials say by raising tuition $5,000 more, students can be enrolled, more faculty can be hired, and some of the funding that was slashed during the recession can be restored.

Mark Leslie is the president of the San Diego Taxpayers Association, and he says there is another way to gain control over higher costs.

The new tuition plan has the full support of the UC Chancellors, including the head of UCSD.

The proposal is already provoking negative reviews from some of the state’s top lawmakers, and the governor.

Governor Jerry Brown had pledged to raise state funding to the schools by four percent each year, but with one condition, that tuition costs stay frozen.

Approving a hike would be blowing up that deal.

Not surprisingly, students say a tuition hike is the wrong course to take.

Currently, tuition at UCSD is about $12,000, but under the proposal that could jump to $15,500 by 2019.

The proposed hikes still need approval by the board of regents which will consider the hike next month.

Several regents, including Governor Brown and Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins have already signaled their opposition.

This has all the makings of a bruising battle between the UC system and state lawmakers.