Sacramento, CA – Legislation to freeze the fees and tuition paid by students in the UC and CSU public universities today passed out of the Assembly’s Higher Education Committee with bipartisan support. Assembly Bill 67, introduced by Assemblymember Jeff Gorell in January, was recently combined with higher education legislation by Assemblymembers Kristin Olsen (R-Modesto), and Rocky Chavez (R-Oceanside).

“We’ve balanced the budgets of the universities over the past decade by tripling the tuition and fees students pay, making a college education unaffordable for many California families,” said Gorell. “This bill reaffirms California’s commitment to supporting higher education and maintaining a well-educated workforce, one of the most important pillars of California’s economy.”

The legislation was written to help ensure that the revenue raised through the recent Proposition 30 tax increases is prioritized for education, as promised in the campaign. Over the past decade, tuition and fees for students attending California’s public universities has risen dramatically as the legislature repeatedly underfunded higher education. AB 67 addresses this by calling for a freeze in the tuition and fees that students pay, and tying the freeze to a commitment to increases of 5% per year to higher education in the 2013-14 and 2014-15 budgets, and increases of 4% per year in 2015-16 and 2016-17.