Master Plan Idea Can Work

An important component of the old Master Plan for Higher Education was the idea of community colleges as the college of last resort and a potential path for transfer students to get into a UC.  Relatively few of the community colleges, however, provide the bulk of such transfers.  So if the governor and legislature want to promote such transfers, they need to study the practices of those community colleges that are doing what the Master Plan envisioned.  In particular, Santa Monica College would seem to be a good place to start.

Santa Monica College maintains its hold as California’s number one community college in transferring students to the prestigious University of California system, for the 24th year in a row.
This finding came from recent 2013-14 transfer data released by the California Community College Chancellor’s Office... UCLA continues to be by far the most popular destination for SMC students, with nearly 42 percent of the UC transfers – 444 – going to the Westwood campus...

Full story at http://www.smmirror.com/articles/News/Santa-Monica-College-Maintains-Number-One-In-Transfers-To-UC-LMU-USC/42061

Note that the assumption that there is an inherent barrier to transferring that can be fixed by UC - which seems to be the operating principle of the governor and the legislature - has to be questioned if some community colleges succeed and others don't.  Whatever barriers there are exist for all community colleges.