Dive Brief:
- California’s ambitious higher education plan, developed in 1960, has been eroded by the lack of a long-term commitment to funding a system that was supposed to have room for everybody.
- Across the community colleges, Cal State campuses, and University of California system, every state resident was supposed to have access to higher education, but funding cuts have caused a spike in tuition and reduced capacity as colleges accept higher-paying out-of-state students.
- For The Hechinger Report, professor of education Martha Kanter calls California a harbinger of what’s to come for other states that don’t develop long-term funding plans.
Dive Insight:
Education spending is one of the biggest chunks of state budgets everywhere, and it is often the one easiest to cut. States especially took advantage of this vulnerability during the recession when revenue was down. Now most state governments are slowly increasing investment in higher education institutions, with notable exceptions. Higher education administrators must take an active advocacy role in government budget negotiations to defend state spending on colleges and universities. Or, as Kanter says, risk watching their state systems deteriorate.