Mikhail Zinshteyn at CalMatters:
California State University says it’s short $2.3 billion, a staggering budget gap that’s grown sharply since the system first revealed two years ago that it didn’t have the money to properly educate its students. How the nation’s largest public four-year university system will generate that revenue is anyone’s guess, as annual tuition increases of 6% that kicked in last year and an influx of state taxpayer support have been insufficient to pay for Cal State’s growing labor, energy and education expenses. The details of that cumulative gap were unveiled at the bimonthly Cal State Board of Trustees meeting this week. More state support is increasingly unlikely, as California budget experts forecast multi-billion-dollar budget shortfalls worsened by severe federal cuts to major public safety-net programs, like Medicaid, and possible cuts to financial aid.