Once upon a time, California’s public higher education system was the golden crown of all the services that the state provided. But without proper maintenance, public higher education today vaguely resembles the ideals that were envisioned by the 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education in California.
The Master Plan unified California Community Colleges, the California State University and the University of California into a cooperative public higher education system. The plan made promises that illustrated the state’s high valuation of higher education in 1960 such as free tuition for UC students and a guaranteed spot at a California public university for the top third of California high school students.
But the plan has become practically useless today since the most important goal, accessibility for California students to higher education, has failed magnificently. California students are not the main priority of the state’s higher education system anymore, when in fact the entire system should be geared towards serving them.
Promises such as free, or even affordable, tuition for UC students have been laughably broken. California resident UC tuition has increased 37-fold from $300 to $11,160 since 1980. And guarantees, such as a public university spot for the the top third of California high school students, are insufficient for today because the remaining two-thirds of California high school students are left to compete with out-of-state and international students who contribute more tuition than in-state students do.
It is unacceptable that the University and the state have not enacted measures to keep the plan relevant with the increasing demand for higher education from California residents.
From 1989 to 2013, admission rates for California residents statewide at the UC have decreased by 13 percent. At the more elite UC schools such as UCLA, admission rates for California residents have decreased from 46.5 percent in 1989 to 17.7 percent in 2013.
All the while, the demand for public higher education among California students has significantly increased. California resident applications to top UC schools have tripled at Berkeley and almost tripled at UCLA since 1989. However, total admissions for California residents at these top UC schools have essentially stayed the same since 1989.
And as a result of such continued state divestment from public higher education, by 2025, California is expected to have one million fewer college-educated workers than the state’s economy is expected to require.
All of this paints a dismal picture for California’s future and necessitates a renewed direction in California public higher education. We have a responsibility to the students of this state to create a new master plan that ensures them access to a university system that they pay taxes for.
The California Master Plan for Higher Education should be an adaptable, living document that balances affordability, high enrollment and maintenance of the elite standards of the university, in times of both budget cuts and additional funding, but first and foremost, it should prioritize California students in their pursuit of higher education.
Specifically, a provision such as a base, guaranteed-scalar, financial contribution from the state dependent on total enrollment in public higher education should be added, so that the quality of higher education does not decrease and tuition stays stable. This kind of guaranteed state contribution will keep the UC on stable financial footing and keep it from seeking the higher tuition rates from out-of-state students, offering more opportunity for enrollment to California residents.
Furthermore a provision to charter and develop CSU and UC schools dependent on total enrollment at those schools should also be added. This type of provision will ensure that the quality of education at universities does not suffer as total enrollment increases.
But public higher education does not need to fail like K-12 before serious action takes place towards fixing California public higher education. Temporary Band-Aid fixes, such as the Proposition 30 sales tax hike that attempted to fix the steep decline in the quality of the state’s K-12 education, are not needed for public higher education if there is a concrete plan and clear direction.
Its about time to melt that outdated metaphorical golden crown into something more literal for Californian students – a modern plan agreed upon by state legislators and the regents that clearly outlines an affordable, high-quality and accessible public higher education system.