Keep college costs down

Student debt has been in the news lately. What happened?

Here is a statement from my 1961 admissions form from UCLA: “Tuition in the academic colleges is free to every student who has been a legal resident of the State of California for a period of one year.”

Free! Those “poor” out-of-state students had to pay a whopping $250 tuition.

Of course, we had those nasty fees — a $60 incidental fee (covered use of all facilities and medical and hospital care), a $6 student union fee and, if you wanted a locker, you had to pay $1.25 for a combination lock (still have mine).

The cost of college has really gotten out of hand. We need as many well-educated students as possible to make and keep America great and to compete globally. We need to make college more affordable. Our kids deserve it. Our state and country need it.

This story was originally published March 19, 2016 at 9:41 PM with the headline "Keep college costs down."