来源：《洛杉矶时报》
原文刊登日期：2021年5月19日
The University of California is looking at a new pricing scheme that holds the cost of tuition steady throughout a student’s undergraduate years. Pioneered by such schools as George Washington University in Washington, D.C., this wise approach lets families plan for a college education without getting hit by large, unforeseen increases. It’s a concept whose time has come.
加州大学正在考虑一项新的定价方案，使学生在整个本科阶段的学费保持稳定。华盛顿特区的乔治华盛顿大学等学校率先采用了这种明智的方法，让家庭可以为子女接受大学教育做计划，而不会受到费用不可预见的大幅增长的打击。这个概念的时代已经到来。
This is the wrong time, though, for another pending proposal, which will be discussed Thursday by the Board of Regents: a tuition price hike that would raise the cost of a year’s classes at a UC school by as much as $642, starting with the class entering in 2022.
然而，现在提出另一项未决的提议却不合时宜。该提议将于周四由加州大学董事会讨论：上调加州大学的学费，从2022年入学的学生开始，最高上调642美元。
The board decided against a similar tuition increase last year in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the state’s infection rates low and trending lower, the regents might have thought this was a safe time to bring in more revenue, which would be used largely to provide more financial aid for low-income students.
在去年新冠肺炎大流行期间，加州大学董事会决定不上调类似的学费。由于加州目前的感染率较低，而且呈下降趋势，董事们可能认为这是一个增加收入的安全时机，这些收入将主要用于为来自低收入家庭的学生提供更多的资助。
Things are certainly looking up on several fronts, but the state and its residents aren’t out of the woods yet. Many families are still recovering financially and emotionally from the traumas of the pandemic. The potential for new surges and possible variants of the coronavirus isn’t known yet. The housing market is booming, which means finding affordable housing is more difficult than ever. The last thing families need is a new expense that will add $2,500 to the cost of a four-year college education.
在几个方面，情况确实有所好转，但加州及其居民尚未走出困境。许多家庭仍在经济上和情感上没有从大流行病的创伤中恢复。目前尚不清楚新冠病例激增和病毒变异的可能性。房价正在上涨，这意味着找到不贵的住房比以往任何时候都困难。家庭最不需要的就是在四年大学教育上增加2500美元的新开支。
Besides, UC should soon be awash in new money, as Governor Gavin Newsom has proposed to use federal rescue funds to increase the state’s higher education budget by nearly $50 billion. Newsom doesn’t want the money to be used to cover tuition-related costs, but some of those dollars could be used to reduce student housing costs, another important part of college expenses. Room and board at some UC campuses are among the most costly in the nation.
此外，加州大学应该很快就会有大量新的资金，因为州长加文·纽森已提议使用联邦救援基金，将该州的高等教育预算增加近500亿美元。纽森不希望这笔钱用于支付与学费相关的费用，但其中一些钱可以用于减少学生的住宿费，这是大学开支的另一个重要部分。加州大学一些校区的食宿费用是全美最高的。
Meanwhile, UC staff just received a 3% pay raise. Not to deny employees good pay, but the system’s staff were not laid off during the pandemic. They are relatively whole, while many incoming UC students’ families are not.
与此同时，加州大学的员工刚刚获得了3%的加薪。不是否认员工的高薪，但教育系统的工作人员并没有在大流行期间被解雇。他们是相对完好的，而许多即将入学的加州大学学生的家庭不是。
Like other public colleges in California, UC is particularly generous with financial aid. Students whose families earn less than $80,000 a year can attend tuition-free, and many students receive considerable help with the cost of housing and textbooks as well. But the amount of assistance for families making more than $80,000 falls off sharply. A year at UC costs about $30,000 a year; that’s not an easy nut for many families to swallow.
和加州其他公立大学一样，加州大学在财务资助方面特别慷慨。家庭年收入低于8万美元的学生可以免学费，许多学生还能在住房和课本方面得到相当大的帮助。但是对年收入超过8万美元的家庭的援助金额急剧下降。加州大学一年的费用约为3万美元；这对许多家庭来说并非易事。
Newsom should either let UC use some of the new funding for financial aid or give it a bigger share of the state’s current surplus. At the same time, UC should be looking for ways to cut costs, especially in its administration. Tuition hikes will come to UC, but this is not the time to put an additional burden on students and their families.
纽森应该让加州大学使用部分新财政援助资金，或者让加州大学从加州目前的财政盈余中获得更大份额。与此同时，加州大学应该寻找削减成本的方法，尤其是在管理方面。加州大学的学费将会上涨，但现在还不是给学生和他们的家庭增加额外负担的时候。