California dream of free college wilts under fiscal pressure

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

It was 1962 at Berkeley and the campus crackled with possibilities for freshman John Garamendi, football player, business major, future lieutenant governor. Annual cost: About $170.

In 1985, freshman and budding journalist Jeff Chang strode on to Cal's redwood-shaded acres. Issues of the day were diversity, how to handle it, and apartheid, how to stop it. Average annual cost: About $1,300.

Cut to this fall and poli sci major Dyana Mardon who works a few jobs and is trying hard not to dig herself into debt. Cost: About $7,300.

California's come a long way from its 1960 goal of free college for all its residents. Technically, in-state students admitted to the prestigious 10-campus system still pay zero tuition. But assorted fees that once were minimal are creeping up, which some consider a costly mistake.

It was a good slogan to buy votes.