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Education Initiative Enters Circulation

Tuition and Fees at University of California, California State
University, and Community Colleges. Initiative Constitutional Amendment.

SACRAMENTO - Secretary of State Debra Bowen today announced that the proponent of a new initiative may begin collecting petition signatures for his measure.

The Attorney General prepares the legal title and summary that is required to appear on initiative petitions. When the official language is complete, the Attorney General forwards it to the proponent and to the Secretary of State, and the initiative may be circulated for signatures. The Secretary of State then provides calendar deadlines to the proponent and to county elections officials. The Attorney General's official title and summary for the measure is as follows:

TUITION AND FEES AT UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, AND COMMUNITY COLLEGES. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. Prohibits increases in tuition or general fees for an undergraduate or graduate student of the University of California, the California State University or the California Community Colleges while such a student is enrolled, in good academic standing, and making satisfactory academic progress towards receiving a degree within the applicable timeframe specified by the official catalog of the student’s campus. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: Colleges and universities would face new constraints on their ability to raise additional revenue in the form of student fees and tuition in a given year. While continuing students in good academic standing would experience stable tuition and fee levels, tuition charged to new students at the University of California and the California State University could be higher than it would otherwise be, especially in the initial years after the initiative's adoption. The state could face General Fund cost pressures to the extent that universities were not able to raise the tuition revenue they would otherwise seek. This pressure would likely diminish over time as additional students became subject to the increased tuition levels. At the California Community Colleges, General Fund pressure likely would be minor, even initially. (12-0006.)

The Secretary of State's tracking number for this measure is 1581 and the Attorney General's tracking number is 12-0006.

The proponent for this measure, Christopher J. Campbell, must collect signatures of 807,615 registered voters – the number equal to eight percent of the total votes cast for governor in the 2010 gubernatorial election – in order to qualify it for the ballot. The proponent has 150 days to circulate petitions for this measure, meaning the signatures must be collected by September 6, 2012.

The initiative proponent can be reached at (949) 338-8115.

To sign up for regular ballot measure updates via email, RSS feed, or Twitter, go to www.sos.ca.gov/multimedia.

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