So much has changed since California’s Master Plan for Higher Education was established in 1960. Volatile economic changes, cost increases, and burgeoning student enrollment have stretched California’s postsecondary institutions beyond capacity.
California’s existing fragmented system of higher education is not allowing the state to make good on its promise of equitable degree attainment to fuel individual prosperity and robust regional economies. A reinvigorated and collaborative effort to create a public agenda for higher education would enhance the promising work undertaken by the segments to build a coordinated system that functions for all students.
California’s existing fragmented system of higher education is not allowing the state to make good on its promise of equitable degree attainment to fuel individual prosperity and robust regional economies.
California is one of only two states without a central body coordinating its higher education system.
This lack of systemic coordination has an adverse impact on student success and leaves institutions to mitigate challenges on their own. Especially during transition points (i.e., from K-12 to postsecondary, from community college to four-year institutions, and from postsecondary to the workforce), a lack of coordination across higher education too often leaves students and families poorly informed and ill-equipped to make the important decisions they need for their own futures. The state has spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to address problems an independent coordinating body could be charged with solving. All the while, students continue to lack the supports they need to be successful.
Amidst important policy conversations and the enthusiasm for higher education from the state’s new administration and legislature, today California Competes released its latest publication, The Case for a Statewide Higher Education Coordinating Entity.
