"Sacramento suffers from a disease called hardening of the categories. What are the causes and effects of the gridlock affecting the California Legislature and what can be done about it? Start with just one effect: a 30,000 percent increase in some education fees at the University of California. In the 1950s and 1960s, fees (no tuition) averaged about $100 per year for all programs; room and board ran about $125 per month. Fifty years later, undergraduate tuition is now $10,000 and some graduate programs total $30,000-plus per year - a 10,000 percent and 30,000 percent increase, respectively, dictated by the state.This is a parent tax, a massive, progressive tax on middle-class parents whose students do not qualify for university aid. Don't blame the regents; the tax is really imposed by the Legislature."