Thank you Brian. I want to underscore what you've heard from the other leaders of education here today. That investing in education - in all levels of education - is an investment in the future of the state of California.
We're standing together today to show that our institutions are very much linked.
We are united in our support of continued investment in education. If you think about it, cutting an economic engine that produces an educated workforce and creates jobs and new revenue for the state will only hinder the state's economic recovery.
It's kind of like a farmer cutting off or destroying his or her seed corn. You just don't do it if you want to have a future.
In a way it's a little bit crazy. The CSU system and the UC system expend a great deal of effort training teachers. We've made a commitment to train teachers in all fields, especially in science and math.
What are we reading in the newspapers? We're reading about school districts that are sending layoff notices to teachers telling them that they're not sure they can continue to have a job with them come this fall. Is that crazy or what?
We need the resources to do what we do best - that is teaching, research, and public service at the University of California. It all begins at the K through 12 level and continues at community colleges and at the CSU system.
For UC there's a $417-million gap between the budget that the UC Regents adopted and what was proposed in the January budget of the Governor.
We of course recognize the severity of this year's budget problem. But we think that California needs to see the value of education and supporting education and investing in education.
Like the CSU system, for us access is a key factor for what we do.
There is a strong demand for a UC education. At UC Santa Cruz we saw an enormous increase in freshman applications to nearly 28,000 this year. And more than 5,000 transfer applications.
This year, the University of California system is providing a place to all qualified students. But we can't guarantee that again for next year.
Who will be squeezed out? Well it's kind of obvious. 38 percent of UC students come from families where neither parent has a college education.
35 percent of our students come from very low-income families.
In fact, cuts to higher education are going to make it more difficult for those students to pay for college. It will make it more difficult for those students to get into the classes that they need to graduation in a timely way, and it will make it more difficult for those students to obtain the college services that they need.
These are students who are going into the workforce with the skills that they need to move the state forward.
For example, UC supports the largest health sciences program in the nation and we train at UC two-thirds of the medical students in the state of California.
In fact, last fall, 55 UC Santa Cruz students went on to medical school.
Graduates in our Health Sciences major go on to work in more of the health professions.
This year we expect to graduate 2,800 students with bachelors, masters, Ph.Ds. These are students who go on to get jobs in all sectors of our economy.
Our engineering alumni work in companies like Apple, Google, Yahoo, Intel, and IBM. Then contribute to the economic well being of the state of California.
They show that investment in education pays off many times over.
You know, John F. Kennedy once said: "Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, when fulfilled, can be translated for the benefit of everyone and the greater strength of our nation.
We all believe that in this state we need a bipartisan approach to next year's budget that will balance long-term spending and revenues.
We urge the Governor and the Legislature to find ways to minimize cuts to all sectors of public education. Now is the time to invest in education.
