California to cut out its brain, to spite its budget

… in the University of California system. From an article at the Nation, by the awesome Laila Lalami:

The proposed cut to the UC budget will have two immediate consequences: larger classes and higher fees for students; and heavier workloads and salary cuts for faculty and staff. As classes become larger, the amount of attention given to each student will decline, as will the quality of education. Once higher fees are implemented, out-of-state students will increasingly choose to enroll in public universities outside California, taking with them precious money they would have spent on tuition, rent, books, meals, computers and other college necessities. With heavier workloads, UC faculty will have less time to devote to their innovative research. Salary cuts to UC staff will mean that more people will be unable to pay their mortgages, which will in turn worsen the housing crisis.

This is not happy news.