The effect is the same, but the key issue is private vs. public. The funding for a private school is, well, private. No tax dollars are paid by the government for educating a student. In California, the public UC schools take in tax dollars to help educate the students. Therefore, the cost of education is de facto a political issue. In California, the taxpayers give each student ~$10,000.00 per school year to attend in 2011-12[0], down from ~$16,000.00 in 2007-08. I believe this includes international student. The reason for this is long and goes back to the California Master Plan [1]. Essentially the point of the Master Plan was "anyone from anywhere in California could, if they worked hard enough, get a bachelor’s degree from one of the best universities in the country (and, therefore, in the world), almost free of charge." You can see how this legacy of the Master Plan clashes with the current tuition issues and influx of Pacific Rim scions. People grew up in California with a good chance of, though being poor, working hard and making a great life. We all knew mothers and uncles that studied their butt off and made it out of Salinas' fields, out of the camps in the Sierras, or out of the ghettos, all by working hard. No small part of the meme that 'if you go to college, you will escape poverty' came out of the Master Plan.

And it WORKED! People really went to Cal or Davis or Chico or Bakersfield and made it out of poverty. All because the tuition was cheap and the plan worked. And California became what it is today. Silicon Valley, Hollywood, the Salinas agriculture sphere, Napa Valley, the dairy and forestry, all these places exist in California in some way due to the success of the master plan. The UCs are THE Jewel of The West's crown because the people of California put their money where their mouth was. They believed that education was the way to good living for their children. Assemblywoman Dorothy Donahoe, for whom the Master Plan bill was named, believed in the children of California. She was a person that planted trees whose shade she knew she would never sit in, and she did for her love of the people of California. And California grew mighty for those sacrifices. The UCs are THE BEST universities that have ever existed, by nearly any measure. The people of California, for decades and generations, paid into this with their taxes and knew it was good.

And now, now we have the scions of the Pacific Rim are cheating and buying their way into these places. They are taking the seats from hard working sons and daughters of farmers and loggers, dentists and doctors, mechanics and architects. And they flaunt their wealth! They don't care that the janitors who dream that their daughters will attend Santa Cruz and UCLA see them do doughnuts in Lambos.

The influx of wealth strikes at the core of the Master Plan and the hopes and dreams of the people of California. The UCs are seen as just another playground for the elite in this way (not strictly true yet). But for some reason the people of California are stuck footing some of the bill.

[0]http://www.ppic.org/main/publication_quick.asp?i=1119

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Master_Plan_for_Hig...