Congratulations.If you’re reading this, you have a copy of The State Hornet, which more than likely means you’re a current student or faculty member at Sacramento State. Either way, it took a lot of work to get where you are. You deserve it.Beyond the immediate benefits of expanding your intellectual horizons in a university classroom, research done by the U.S. Census Bureau shows that on average, you’ll earn almost twice as much annually with a bachelor’s degree than simply a high school diploma. Furthermore, an educated workforce is preferable to a non-educated one is common sense.This is why it’s so puzzling that the government of California seems to take every opportunity to make it harder for the people of this state to get a high quality college education.In his newest proposed budget, released in January, Gov. Schwarzenegger claims to be restoring cuts made to the California State University budget last year. What he doesn’t say is that this is based on an assumption that student fees will increase by an additional 10 percent this year.If this increase is approved by the CSU Trustees, that would mean that since 2002, our fees have gone up an incredible 210 percent, 73 percent just since 2007.Already students throughout the system are feeling the heat from the Capitol and the chancellor’s office. We’re graduating with backbreaking amounts of debt that hang with us for decades, in many cases complicating financial decisions down the line. In some cases we’ve even taken out new loans to pay for recent fee hikes.Some of us are working two or three jobs on top of school just to pay for things like books, food and gas.Professors have been laid off, decreasing the number of sections available. This means it’ll take us longer to graduate, and we’ll build up even more debt.But enough about us.Think about what this means for the generations of young Californians who look forward to the opportunity to go to college just like we did when we were their age.If our fees have gone up by 210 percent in less than a decade, what are they likely to be when the aforementioned youth are applying to Sac State? How many jobs will they have to work? How many years will it take them to pay off their debt?This has to stop now.It’s going to take a group effort among students and faculty to convince the governor and the legislature that higher education must be respected.We have to demand a full restoration of classes cut due to budget constraints, without further raising of student fees. This will require the rehiring of laid off part-time lecturers, as well as the hiring of new tenured faculty.We have to pressure the Legislature to pass Assembly Bill 656, which would use a new tax on oil extracted from California to provide steady funding for higher education in the state, as well as AB 1761, providing tuition and fee assistance to all Cal Grant B recipients.And we have to demand that fee hikes be frozen and rolled back, including a repeal of the athletic department fee increase imposed on us last year.The demonstration held at the Capitol on Monday was a small but important part of this process. It’s up to us to keep the pressure on our elected officials. Sac State Coalition is a student-run organization dedicated to doing just that. We meet at 10:30 a.m. every Saturday on the first floor of the Academic Information Resource Center.The march alone didn’t get the job done, but it demonstrated that we are serious and that we are willing to do what it takes to protect higher education.