Class of 2014 Preserving Access to California Higher Education

摘要

For over 35 years, California's policy of providing a college education to all citizens who could benefit from it has enabled California to lead the nation in making public higher education available and has helped the state generate great wealth and social mobility. Several trends, however, suggest that California's ability to maintain, much less increase, high levels of college education may be at risk. First, with the state's growing population, many more students will seek access to higher education. Second, the fraction of state resources devoted to higher education has been dropping in recent years because of growing demands on the state budget that compete with education, such as corrections, health, and welfare. Without a significant change in priorities, it is likely that funding for higher education will continue to be limited. Third, the costs of higher education have been rising faster than inflation over the past 35 years. While many sectors of the economy have slowed rising output costs through significant productivity improvements, the higher education sector has not shown comparable improvements in productivity.