“Proposition 30”Proposition 30 (Prop 30 or SB11) is supported by the Protecting Schools and Local Public Safety Act of 2012. Prop 30 is a tax-driven initiative by California Governor Jerry Brown. Proposition 30 seeks to roll back planned budget cuts to public schools and higher education by raising California's sales tax from 7.25% to 7.50% for the next four years. Three new tax brackets will also be created for taxable income. Incomes above $250,000, $300,000 and $500,000 will pay more in taxes for the next seven years. The extra money saved will go towards adding more classes for higher education students. Additionally, to help reduce California's state budget, Proposition 30 would raise $6 billion a year in tax increases. If Proposition 30 had been in effect when I graduated from high school, I would have gone to college right away. Prop 30 would have provided more classes for students to take, but instead I decided to go the other way for a few years. Plus college was out of my budget at the time. So I decided to join the merchant marine, which allowed me to earn good money and save for college. I was in the merchant marine for 5 1/2 years. With more classes and lower tuition I believe you would see more people choosing to pursue their higher education instead of working a dead end job. Conservatives believe Proposition 30 is unconstitutional. Californians will face the largest tax increase in years. Taxpayers will shell out $6 billion a year to fund education expenses. Michelle Steele says, “Proposition 30 will not fix our schools or stabilize the state budget; it will increase fiscal volatility and leave our children facing more and more of the same debt” (Steele). You can't make that judgment until it's been in place for a few years Michelle Steele......middle of paper......and able to lower tuition due to Prop 30. Before the Prop 30 went into effect students were going in different directions. Students pursue careers that do not require a higher education degree. It's not just tuition that keeps people from attending higher education, it's also the lack of first-come, first-served tuition. With proposal 30, more people are included in classes. Jessika Jones believes that “Affordability of higher education was a problem even before the current state budget crisis. But with recent budget cuts, the situation is getting worse. Students and their families are taking on more and more debt high and the costs could deter students from attending college" (Jones). Students undertake apprenticeships that lead to fairly decent careers. Because college tuition is so expensive and there are fewer classes, this reduces the college's reputation and graduation rate.