Now, more than at any other time since California’s Master Plan for Higher Education was chartered in 1960, the state needs expert leadership to ensure equitable access and success to all Californians seeking a degree or credential.
California Competes’ Executive Director Lande Ajose will testify in support of creating the Office of Higher Education Performance and Accountability.
The Higher Education Committee will consider Assembly Bill 1936 this Tuesday at 1:30 pm in Room 437 of the State Capitol.
In our 2014 report, Charting a Course, California Competes found despite its vast higher education system, California stands out as one of only two states without comprehensive oversight or coordination of higher education. As a result, California’s higher education system lacks accountability and vision across segments.
Change is overdue.
California’s higher education system has been overlooked by policymakers for too long – particularly when it is exactly the place we should invest our time to bolster the economy and create job opportunities, issues that consistently rank as top priorities for California voters.
In addition to developing a statewide public agenda for higher education and connecting degree attainment to workforce needs, the new coordinating entity should maintain a comprehensive statewide data system that would support policy development and system monitoring. Without the capacity to store and organize student data in a way that makes information accessible to policymakers and independent researchers, the state loses critical insight into its investment in higher education.
In Case You Missed It
Our newest publication, Opportunity Imbalance: Race, Gender, and California’s Education-to-Employment Pipeline, demonstrates that overall trends in high school graduation rates, college completion, and employment hide stark challenges for different populations, such as educational outcomes for men of color, workforce outcomes for women, and overall outcomes for rural residents.
EdSource covered the findings presented in Opportunity Imbalance in an article by executive director Louis Freedberg and reporter Mikhail Zinshteyn. They wrote, “California’s high school graduation rates have increased significantly in recent years, but the percentage of those students who complete their college education continues to lag, with long-term implications for the state’s future.” The Los Angeles Daily News subsequently published the EdSource article.
