Comment by vitus

Perhaps some more generous explanations for the rapid tuition growth between 2000 and 2010:

- UC Merced was established in 2005, so I buy the argument on that point regarding investment in infrastructure.

- In 2009, the state's general funds accounted for $2.6 billion, compared to just under $3 billion in 2006. Student fees in that timeframe rose from $1.55 billion to $2 billion, tracking fairly closely with the corresponding shortfall in state funding. [0, 1] Yes, these numbers are also cherrypicked as a representative budget right before the GFC and shortly after, but they represent neither peak funding nor the overall sharpness of the budget cuts. So, I reject the claim that the tuition hikes in the aftermath of the GFC was due to increased borrowing costs for the UC system. I think a more mundane explanation is that the state had a budgetary shortfall due to less taxes being collected (income, property), and made cuts across the board; the UC system raised student fees to compensate.

https://thebottomline.as.ucsb.edu/2017/10/a-brief-history-of... provides an overview of how tuition at UCs evolved up through 2017, although it gets the state funding amounts off by 3 orders of magnitude (since the linked governor's budget is measured in thousands of dollars).

[0] UC's 2009 budget is outlined in slide 3 of https://www.ucop.edu/operating-budget/_files/documents/2010-...

[1] UC's 2006 budget is outlined in slide 9 of https://www.ucop.edu/operating-budget/_files/rbudget/200607-...