The CSU Chancellor has proposed an increase in tuition prices that range from $270 for undergraduates to $438 for graduate students per year. This is after tuition has already been raised more than $1,000 in the past eight years.

This proposal is because of new CSU initiatives that total $346 million in new spending for the next year. This includes the graduation initiative.

This plan leaves students who are already scraping by wondering how they will afford another new setback.

Some Chico State students already work full-time or multiple part-time jobs in order to get by. The extended workload along with a full-class schedule gives students little breathing room.

The plan includes projects that the increased budget will benefit but leaves questions as to what exactly is being done with the money.

We have already argued that the library’s cut hours seem absurd considering how much money we pay for tuition. As students give more of their money away, they end up with less.

Students who work more are probably less likely to graduate in four years which contradicts the plan’s “graduate in four” initiative.

A section of the money will be going to increasing the salaries of professors. This result is because of the strike of last semester, which negatively impacted some student’s education.

It is understandable that tuition fluctuates. Inflation is natural, but the inflation of tuition prices in the past decade has not been.

The increased paycheck of professors who can choose to limit a student’s education through the cancellation of classes and inefficient teaching methods leaves students feeling cheated from their college experience and money spent.

It’s not uncommon for a $200 textbook to be required for a class, and with a full-time schedule consisting of at least four to five classes, students can severely struggle to pay for books. Increasing tuition only makes the struggle more difficult.

Most importantly, the state of California needs to give its education system more money.

Education is one of societies most valuable things, and California’s government needs to support it more. If our government allotted more of the state budget towards education, the costs would not have to be passed down to students.