^^^ @Nhatrang The UCs didn’t used to offer tuition waivers to their grad students. Grad students were expected to cover that from their own money whether through TA-ing, loans, working outside the university – or by applying for outside grants/fellowships.
I believe that the UCs only began offering tuition wavers in the 90s, as a way of remaining competitive with private elites – Stanford, Ivies - which did waive tuition AND offered (often very good) TA ships.
I think having a healthy system of private and PUBLIC system is one that’s worked very well in the US. We will all lose if public universities start losing their best - and their luster.