School started for most this week in California. The state has been withdrawing support for higher education for over a decade now. This year the cuts are as big as ever. Meanwhile student fees are increasing to make up for budget cuts, as well as the costs of increasingly larger, higher paid administrations. Students and others have protested in recent years, mostly to no avail.
I'm a writer, ethnographer, and historian with a PhD in sociology. My current work focuses on economic and social development. I write occasionally for Counterpunch, East Bay Express, Z Magazine, Foreign Policy in Focus, Dollars and Sense, the Anderson Valley Advertiser, and other publications.