Last Thursday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger included in his budget proposal a phased elimination of the Cal Grant to financially-needy students in higher education, beginning with students entering college this fall. This proposal will have a devastating effect on the lives of hundreds of thousands of California’s young people. Not only would it knock the underpinnings out from under their plans to attend college this fall, it would come so late in the admissions cycle that most will not have the time or resources to find substitute grants or loans.

For more than 50 years, the Cal Grant has been the key to a college degree for academically-qualified, financially-needy students. For those attending public universities in the state, it covers the full cost of fees (tuition). In addition, the grant provides up to $9,700 a year for students attending private universities in the state. Most private schools, like Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, match the Cal Grant with university grants and other scholarship money. Together with federal and private loans, and federal work-study funds, this provides these students an opportunity to earn a bachelor’s degree, which in our increasingly technological society is the minimum qualification for a financially secure career.

The cutbacks in funding that have already been announced for community colleges, the state university and UC systems will force them to drastically curtail enrollments, denying opportunity to hundreds of thousands of young people. Private universities like NDNU have the ability to increase enrollment to some degree to take in some of these students but with few exceptions, private universities do not have the resources to fund full tuition assistance for all financially needy students. The Cal Grant has been an important piece of the funding solution for financially-needy students at independent institutions. It has been a cost effective solution for decades.

Certainly we all recognize that there is a financial crisis in the state, as there is in many other states, because of the recession. We can argue endlessly about whose fault it is that it is so much worse in California and what must be done to fix it. Clearly drastic budget cuts are needed in the short term and clearly some of those cuts are going to have to come from the state’s education budget, including the Cal Grant program. But to completely eliminate the program as the Governor’s proposal does places an unfair burden on those least able to bear it. In effect, it says to our young people that education, even public education, is a luxury that is available only to those who can afford it, and that position flies in the face of more than 150 years of history in the state and in this country. The function of public education has been to level the playing field somewhat, to give hard-working young people, regardless of their economic circumstances, a chance to make a maximum contribution to society and, in the process, secure their own futures. It is a system that has served the state and the nation well since the middle of the 19th century, and is largely responsible for the way of life we enjoy today. To destroy an essential element of that system, especially one that benefits those with few, if any, other options, for short-term budgetary or political reasons is both short sighted and unethical.

Access to higher education is a public value that needs to be preserved for the long-term future of the State of California. The Cal Grant has been one of the engines helping to drive the success of the California economy, by producing a qualified workforce in a range of fields from biochemistry to computer science to graphic design. To deny access to these high-paying jobs to hundreds of thousands of low-income students is unthinkable. Even if one ignores the ethical considerations, in the long run it would destroy the economic capacity and ultimately the tax base of California. Add to that, in the short run, those students would likely be left unemployed when the California economy can least bear additional unemployment.

There is no question that this is a time for action. But blindly slashing budgets without considering the long-term economic and human consequences is foolish and wrong.

Dr. Judith Maxwell Greig was named president of Notre Dame de Namur University in February 2009 after having held the office on an interim basis for a year. She has been at NDNU for more than 20 years and was executive vice president and provost before becoming president. She has also been a professor and Dean of the School of Education and Leadership. She holds a BA from Wheaton College, an MA from Santa Clara University, a second MA and a Ph.D. from Stanford University.