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Comment by Domenic_S | Hacker News Reader

Today, the cost is somewhere around $50/unit, not too bad.

If I could allocate my tax dollars toward programs like Community College and other non-University options (Coursera?) I would be all about higher taxes for education. But I get fatigued and resentful when public institutions cry poverty and then we see things like this:

> UC Berkeley Police Chief Victoria Harrison retired with a lump-sum package of $2.1 million and was immediately rehired as UC Berkeley police chief with higher pay than she had earned before her retirement.

http://www.utsandiego.com/uniontrib/20081212/news_lz1ed12top...

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The 95$ per semester figure is for the State University at Sacramento - not for the community college. The current fees work out to ~5500$ per semester[1] for the same university.

[1] http://www.calstate.edu/budget/student-fees/fee-rates/sacram...

Probably not a coincidence, at all, that $5500 is just under the Pell grant amount.

The Pell grant limit is per year. The $5500 is per semester, so the total yearly tuition is about 2x what the Pell grant pays.

Wait, so between $327 and $587 (wonky 70s inflation) a semester in today's dollars? I'd have killed for that.

Between $327 and $587 per unit or credit, is extremely common for state universities. You generally have to be resident in the state for at least a year, to qualify.

For example, tuition at Stony Brook[1] costs $6,170 annually. At 30 credits a year (15 per semester), that's $205 per unit/credit.

You'll find that tuition in most state universities are around that range, across the country.

[1] http://www.stonybrook.edu/undergraduate-admissions/cost-and-...

Mandatory fees add another $2,260 annually though. Doesn't really change your point, but it's not quite that cheap.

To put that into further perspective, it costs us about $20000/year for day care for our baby. This is near Boston.

So you have to make close to $30k before taxes to pay for day care? Is this normal for daycare?

If one parent in a situation like this is making around the median individual income of ~$40k a year, it probably makes more sense financially to not work until the kid is school age.

Obviously it's not that simple because of potential lost future earnings resulting from delayed career advancement, but I wonder if people really bother doing the math.

Different country similar issue. Yes people do the math, once the baby is there.

You can't allocate tax dollars towards specific programs, but you can allocate charitable dollars towards community colleges, and get a discount on your taxes. California community colleges are pretty inexpensive compared to most four-year schools, so a small donation can be turned into a scholarship for tuition, fees, and supplies. For a scholarship recipient, having those paid for can make a huge difference.

(I did two years at Orange Coast College, before transferring to get my BS, I will be donating to OCC this year, and my four-year school probably never)

Is that average? Median? In Los Angeles, I think it's around $44/unit, whereas in NOVA it's about $110/unit

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