Dive Brief:
- California Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a bill this week that would have created the Office of Higher Education Performance and Accountability to advise the governor and legislature on higher education policy.
- The Daily Californian reports the bill would have created an agency similar to the California Postsecondary Education Commission, which was defunded in 2011 and has not been replaced.
- The new agency could have better coordinated student pathways across higher education, especially from community colleges to four-year schools, and would have led data collection and research efforts.
Dive Insight:
College and university leaders supported aspects of the bill, but critics said the agency’s duties were better left handled at the local level. The Daily Californian reports the president of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges was concerned the oversight agency would not have had enough representation from across the state's entire higher education system.
Nationwide, public school leaders would be more likely to support an increase in spending on higher education in their states if it went directly to schools, rather than beefing up oversight.