In defense of my already untenable position
… as a graduate student who lives on tax dollars, either at federal or state level:
Felix Salmon at Reuters also discovers that not all creditors are created equal in California’s eyes. Some people will still get cash rather than a wish sandwich in the mail. See if you can discern a theme:
People who get California IOUs People California pays in cash Grants to aged, blind or disabled persons University of California People needing temporary assistance for basic family needs Public Employees’ Retirement System People in drug prevention, treatment, and recovery services Legislators, legislative employees, and appointees Persons with developmental disablities Judges People in mental health treatment Department of Corrections Small Business Vendors Health Care Services payments to Institutional Providers
Well, the only reason University of California is in the list of state institutions still paying out cash is, well, UC is now only partly a state institution. Already the flagship campus UC Berkeley relies more heavily on private donations than ever (I think somewhere around 15% of the operating budget now). When the issue of state budge came up some months ago (because, well, HotAir.com’s right—this “crisis” could’ve been avoided if the unprincipled legislators could make the necessary cuts and “sacrifices” months ago), the statement from university official was, well, UC has enough discretionary funding that does not depend on the state funding in the short term that lack of payments from the state on a month-to-month basis will not affect UC employees.
It’s not that California state government is somehow giving special treatment to UC employees—it’s that UC system itself has enough funding independent of this mess of a government that it can shield its employees from the stupid government.
And this is probably the strongest argument one can provide in support of further “privatization” of UC system. There is a reason the nation’s best universities are private schools. In order for the best schools in the UC system (i.e. UC Berkeley and UC LA) to compete with them, we need to compete for and win private funding, because well, frankly state funding is too unreliable and too immoral.