CSU student fee hike is a big one: 5 percent slams California kids in November 2010

Abel Maldonado attacked the adults

If you attend CSUN, Cal State Los Angeles or Cal State Long Beach get ready, because costs for students and their families are taking a major leap, and graduate students are getting slammed even harder. Big college fee hikes were approved just minutes ago.

Right away, the new California Lieutenant Governor Abel Maldonado, who is running for that office again in November against San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, slammed the fee hike.

Maldonado said young people are being forced to pay for the California State Legislature's gross overspending. Here's more on the war of words:

The CSU Trustees claim that the hikes, which mean a fat $204 annual increase for undergrads, bringing the total state university tuition to $4,230 this fall, "will allow us to move forward." That's what Chancellor Charles B. Reed said this afternoon.

But Maldonado sounded disgusted. Granted, he is running for office. But he voted against the fees and said:

"Wasteful gridlock and dysfunction in the Capitol have put our great State University system in the difficult position of requesting higher fees.

"As a father of a Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo student, I understand firsthand that we need solutions to the economic troubles ...

"But I cannot ask undergraduate students and their families to open their wallets and sacrifice their hard-earned dollars to make up for Sacramento's inability to live within its means."

How are families out of work going to cough up another $200 or more by November?