California Senate majority leader Dean Florez and co-author Senator Curren Price introduced Senate Bill 969, to be called The California College and University Fee Stabilization Act of 2010, to the State Senate Feb. 5, which would put a cap on the increasing tuition and fees that have faced California college and university students in recent years.?

SB 969 would, if passed, limit the fees charged to resident undergraduate students to be no higher than the time the student “commenced enrollment” in that specific undergraduate degree program.

In addition, the bill would put a limit on fees in any academic year being increased “by an amount exceeding 5 percent of the fees charged for the immediately preceding academic year.”?

The bill’s effects would apply to students who enrolled at the University of California, California State University or community college level “for the fall term of the 2011-12 academic year, or any academic term thereafter.”

One of Sen. Florez’s intentions in writing SB 969 is to help parents planning financially for their children’s education.? The recent 2009 spike in student tuition fees in California – at its highest being a 32 percent tuition fee increase for those attending the California State Universities – had caused great financial upset for those paying for higher education, be it the students or parents. SB 969 would also allow for parents to plan ahead for their other children, because the 5 percent cap would prevent these unpredictable spikes.

According to Sen. Florez, “It will affect school budgets and it will require administrators to plan better and live within their budgets.? It will force them to find efficiencies and make tough budget decisions rather than simply raising student fees as an answer to our tough economic times.”? Schools will be forced to find other solutions to periodic budget cuts.

While SB 969 has yet to receive a policy committee hearing, Sen. Florez believes it will be “received well by the state Senate,” and he thinks it will have a “fair chance of passing,” especially “given the shock of the recent fee increases students faced and the response we have been hearing from our constituents.”

This issue has long been on the democrats of California’s agenda, as well as for Sen. Florez, who said, “Higher education is an important social equalizer, a path for upward mobility.? It’s very important to us, and very important to keep education affordable and as a public good rather than a private privilege.”