Higher Ed Metrics Bill is Dead on Arrival

On Friday, the governor vetoed SB 721 which would have instructed the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) to come up with “metrics” to determine if the UC, CSU, and the community colleges were meeting three goals.  These goals were described in a section of the bill:

In order to promote the state's competitive economic position and quality of civic life, it is necessary to increase the level of educational attainment of California's adult population to meet the state's civic and workforce needs. To achieve that objective, it is the intent of the Legislature that budget and policy decisions regarding postsecondary education generally adhere to all of the following goals:

  (a) Improve student success, which shall include, but not be limited to, greater participation by demographic groups that have historically participated at lower rates, greater completion rates by all students, and improved outcomes for graduates.

  (b) Better align the types of degrees and credentials awarded with the state's workforce and civic needs.

  (c) Increase efficiency so that desired postsecondary education outcomes can be achieved with a given level of resources while maintaining high quality.

The governor’s veto message is at:

http://gov.ca.gov/docs/SB_721_Veto_Message.pdf

In it, he states that “questions about who should measure, what to measure and how to measure what is learned in college are way too important to be delegated to the Legislative Analyst.”

The full text of the now-defunct bill is at:

http://leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/sen/sb_0701-0750/sb_721_bill_20120104_amended_sen_v97.html