UC President Janet Napolitano responded favorably to California Senate Democrats’ proposal today (Dec. 2) to keep tuition flat for in-state students and boost general fund spending for higher education by $156 million.

“I welcome and applaud the Senate Democrats’ interest in maintaining the excellence, access and affordability of California’s system of public higher education,” Napolitano said in a statement.

The Senate bill would boost out-of-state tuition by 17 percent and shift money away from a scholarship program for middle-class students, according to The Sacramento Bee. The bill proposes a halt to the middle-class grants in 2015-16 and using the money instead to more broadly fund higher education — eliminating a planned tuition increase of up to 5 percent, adding more courses and providing more advising.

“The bill introduced today is a promising first step toward making sure that public higher education benefits Californians today and for generations to come, and we look forward to working with Senate Democrats and other elected officials to secure the state funding essential to this end,” Napolitano said.

“State funding should be adequate to ensure that UC remains the best public university in the world and that tuition is as low and predictable as possible.”

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