I just returned from a trip to give a talk in the anthropology department at my old alma mater, UC Santa Cruz, where I graduated in 1993 with my Bachelor of Arts. I have a very hard time believing that this was 25 years ago, but when I started college in 1988 the Berlin Wall was still standing. My, the time has flown. Santa Cruz is beautiful, but it felt weird to go back. The campus has grown and changed so much that it doesn't quite feel like the same place I went to school all those years ago.  But I will be forever grateful to the taxpayers of the state of California who made it possible for kids like me to get an excellent education (BA, MA and PhD) at such phenomenal public institutions of higher learning. California is proof that the public provision of heavily-subsidized or free higher education is a great investment in the future.