State officials and local school and college administrators are projecting a shortage of nearly three million college-educated workers in California by 2025. It may seem a little surreal. With a date like 2025 it could easily be filed into I-don’t-care-enough category, but allow the information to sink in.

The implications of California being free of college-educated workers could mean a decline in economic standards. It’s elitist to think that way, and the idea is too far off to make a clear connection.

One thing that is sure is the standards in education in California need to be accounted for. College educational standards are in decline, and now it’s obvious. The administrators who manage the California universities, whether they are state or California University should heed these implications with painstaking attention.

California State University tuition fees continue to inflate. Since 2002, CSU tuition fees have increased by 94 percent. What guarantee do students have that we’re not just wasting our time and money getting a college education?

What makes students want to hang around a college system with no kinds of incentives other than an empty bank account? We’re used to being broke now, that doesn’t mean we always want that to be the case.

Educational standards in California need to become the number one priority on the things-to-do list and soon – like 10-minutes-ago-soon.

As students, we can’t allow our education to be compromised while administration salaries continue to rise. Like Lila Jacobs, president of the Sacramento State chapter of the California Faculty Association, said: “It’s counter-productive to raise executive salaries while raising student tuition.”

This is just further evidence where the CSU administrators place their priorities, and now we’re seeing the effects. If it didn’t seem real before, but get ready for the wave of realization.

Let it wash over you. Maybe it will hit hard enough to wash away any doubt that our education is in dire jeopardy.

Our education seems to be taking a back seat to the quick profiteering and short-term goals of administrators and executives who only care about lining their own pockets. The only problem is, when the education is gone, no one profits.

The State Hornet staff can be reached at [email protected].