It’s that time of the year again. As the old semester fades away in a smog of final projects and exams, the new semester is already on the horizon. The new semester means hope and promise for some. And for everyone, it certainly means one thing: paying tuition.

At Sacramento State, a fresh semester for undergraduates right now will set you back $1,779. Tuition is likely to rise again next year. For those not keeping track at home, that means increases to tuition fees which have already doubled over the last six years.

Combine the increasing tuition with books, rent and other living expenses, and suddenly college life might seem to some, at least on the outset, not worth the cost.

Students and Families for Tuition Relief Now is a group spearheading a ballot initiative aiming to freeze tuition for both California State University and University of California systems for five years. After those five years are up, any increases to tuition would be tied to inflation.

The initiative, which would end up on the November 2008 ballot if qualified, would also create a new 1 percent tax on income over $1 million.

I’ll have graduated by the time the proposition is passed into law, granted it actually does pass into law. But having experienced the series of tuition increases in my time at Sac State, rising fees can be frustrating, which is probably why the ballot initiative sounds good to me. Maybe it can help restore that old promise of affordable higher education. Or at least reduce the pinch on students.

Responses from officials from both school systems have been a bit curious. CSU representatives have often taken time to mention that, in spite of raises in tuition, CSU student fees in California are among the lowest in the nation. Rationalizing the tuition hikes, however, doesn’t justify them. Just because they’re already low doesn’t mean they should be recklessly increased.

That line of rationalizing seems to leave out that, comparatively, California is an expensive place to live. Health insurance, car insurance, rent and gas among other things – those living costs certainly balance the benefit of low fees. They certainly create huge financial demands on students who are paying their own way through college.

It often seems that students of both the UC and CSU systems are forced to foot the bill for other people’s mistakes, or at least the state’s shortfalls. It might seem unfair then to levy that weight onto others by way of tax. The common good provided by affordable higher education, however, benefits the state as a whole. A well-educated workforce is a big requirement in keeping California’s economy strong.

Some tuition increases are inevitable. To offer high quality education, universities are constantly in need of more money to improve facilities and expand resources, as well as hire and retain first-rate faculty members. But as university education replaces high school education as a basic requirement, it’s important to keep higher education open and available to as many people as possible. That won’t happen if tuition fees keep increasing.

If regents, trustees and lawmakers (looking at you Arnold) want to show how much they care about education, they need to realize that talk is cheap. Tuition increases affect more facets of California than one might think. Not just students, not just parents, not just educators and administrators.

Folks quick to jack up tuition better realize that they’re not just messing with a segment of the population; They’re messing with an ecosystem.

Paul Rios can be reached at [email protected].