A Candidate's Open Letter to All Students and Their Families

By Lingel H. Winters

Please visit my website at http://www.GoWinters.com for further details on my positions and goals

My name is Lingel H. Winters and I am running for Governor of the State of California. I graduatd from U.C. Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law and from Yale, and have spent over 35 years practicing consumer and business law in the San Francisco Bay Area. My top priorities are education and jobs.

The California Dream of Affordable Education: A Fair Deal I oppose the 25% tuition hikes recently imposed on students and their families at UC, CSU and JC campuses. I am also very concerned about the recent announcement that more than half of transfer students from community colleges will have the doors closed to them because the UC and CSU systems have so many state budget limitations and enrollment limits! I worked part-time at Yale and Cal's Boalt Hall and my wife and three daughters worked during their undergraduate and graduate experiences at California universities to get through school. That is not so easy to do today because of lack of jobs. That is one important reason why I favor tax incentives and requirements for State contractors to add California jobs. We must fight this jobless recovery and jobs going overseas.

Tuition hikes by former Governor Pete Wilson began a cycle of placing more and more burdens on California students and their families. We should not impose excessive tuition on our students, nor should we cut them out of the system. At the community college level, enrollments will be more limited due to budget cutbacks. This especially impacts low-income and minority students. They may have to delay or forego the opportunity for a college education. It also impacts older students who are seeking new skills in order to support themselves or feed their families. We must make sure that our future leaders get the education they deserve.

California's universities and students are some of our most precious assets. We must keep the promise made by the 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education. We must get our priorities in order, and not break promises to our families, our students, and our future grandchildren.

I want to give California students and workers a fair deal. An educated workforce is essential to a modern, computerized economy like ours. California's education system and our students, who rely upon it, are the foundation for a progressive and successful society, and the economy which it supports. I pledge to protect and enhance this public treasure.

California has always been a leader in finding bold, new solutions for its people. Let's get California back to being a leader, instead of a state in crisis. I want all Californians to have a fair deal, especially students, and to restore California as a leader that gives back to the national community. Please visit my website at http://www.gowinters.com. Volunteer to help fight tuition hikes and limited enrollments at all three educational systems. REGISTER TO VOTE...AND VOTE, AND GET YOUR FAMILIES TO VOTE. I hope you will vote for me. I welcome your sup