— A 32 percent tuition increase in UCLA in November sent students out of their classrooms to protest the augment.
Riots and protests at the Universities of California (UC) and California State Universities (CSU) mirrored the impact education cuts have on students.
Salaries for professors have been slashed and they are now mandated by the state to take furloughs, which forces them to take nine unpaid days off per semester meaning a 10% salary decrease.
Many agree that cutting funds for public education in California, especially making cuts before reducing expenses in other state-run programs, have terrible and even more costly effects on society in the long term.
Education expenses were given less of a priority than the monies dedicated to prisons, with the state spending $41,000 a year per prison inmates and only $8,000 a year per student.
Photography, audio, video, interviews, editing and production by Laleh Haverim.
