Tag: California Master Plan
How to Overhaul California Master Plan For Higher Education
From Institute For Higher Education Research, University Of Pennsylvania
As pioneered by the 1960 Master Plan, California’s public system of higher education was the envy of the nation for over 30 years. Its three-part system—consisting of California Community Colleges (CCC), California State University (CSU), and the prestigious University of California (UC)—was designed to ensure college access for all Californians as well as to promote excellence in research.
But California’s public education system has not kept pace with economic changes. Only 38.8% of adults over 25 years of age had an associate’s degree or higher in 2012, placing California 23rd in the nation in degree attainment. Deep cuts in state funding and the lack of a long-term, viable finance policy for higher education, as well as political indifference about higher education policy, have forced California’s public colleges and universities to reduce enrollment, staff, faculty, and student services while increasing tuition and fees.
If current trends continue, the state will experience severe shortfalls in the number of people with the workforce certificates and degrees needed to ensure prosperity and social mobility for the majority of Californians.
PRESS RELEASE
California’s Higher Education System: Too Big To Fail, But Failing Anyway?
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
From Master Plan to Mediocrity: Higher Education Performance & Policy in California
FULL REPORT
California Master Plan Needs A Major Overhaul
California’s Little Hoover Commission, an independent oversight panel that submits recommendations to the governor and the state’s Legislature, on Monday released a report that calls on lawmakers and higher-education leaders to scuttle the 1960 California Master Plan for Higher Education and draw up a new blueprint that better meets the needs of students and the demands of the state’s work force. The report says the state’s current three-tiered system, which consists of the University of California, California State University, and community colleges, is failing to produce enough graduates at a time when the state has finite resources to devote to higher education. The report also states that online education holds “great promise” for increasing access and lowering costs, but says it appears that California is “moving substantially slower than it should to integrate online because of faculty opposition and/or general inertia.” The post is from The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Ticker blog.
