The depth of the crisis faced by California screams out from the cold hard data.
- Over one in five Californians are unemployed, underemployed, or have simply given up searching for work.
- Nearly another one in five lives in poverty.
- Low-income workers fortunate to have a job have seen their wages decline since 2006 – with middle income worker salaries remaining stagnant.
- 8.2 million Californians – up from 6.4 million in 2007 – lack health coverage.
- Doors will slam shut this year on as many as 35,000 applicants to the California State University system.
- Both university systems approved 20% tuition and fee hikes since the start of 2009 – and
- UC Regents has just approved an additional 30% hike this year – ending too many students dreams of a higher education, and burdening too many more with high interest debt.
The news for educators is no better.
- More than 23,000 teachers recently received “pink slips”, unlikely to return to the classroom next fall.
- Over three-quarters of a million California families were ousted from their homes in 2008 and 2009.
- The Center for Responsible Lending projects another 2 million foreclosures through 2012 –
- with nearby homes losing an average of over $50,000 in value. 2.4 million California borrowers – 35 percent of all properties with a mortgage – are currently under water (e.g. owe more on their home than it’s currently worth).
- By 2011, that number will increase to nearly 70 percent of homeowners.
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