A Plan to Undo the Plan

UC President Clark Kerr hands
Master Plan to Gov. Pat Brown

Back in the 1950s, California had a growing public higher education system consisting of junior (now community) colleges, state colleges (now CSU), and UC. All three segments jockeyed for support. Eventually, what merged was the 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education. Folks keep referring to the Master Plan although the original expired in 1975.

From time to time, we have noted the need for a new Master Plan on this blog as the legislature makes ad hoc changes in the system.

Now comes a plan that would essentially scrap the idea of three segments and turn the whole thing into one.*

The idea seems to be to have some kind of coordinating body that would run what has evolved since the old Master Plan was put forward. Much of the proposal seems focused on students and access. But UC in particular has evolved into a huge enterprise in which no matter how you measure it, the student function is a relatively small proportion of the budget as the chart below indicates.

There in fact was a coordinating body which had a role, although not an administrative role, until Governor Jerry Brown essentially killed it through defunding. 

Still, there is a need for somebody to revisit the Master Plan idea. So perhaps the new proposal will start someone thinking about the Big Picture rather than just putting patches on the old model.

Source: https://www.ucop.edu/operating-budget/_files/rbudget/2024-25-budget-summary.pdf.

====

*From Institutions to Individuals: A Paradigm Shift for California's Master Plan for Higher Education, Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles, UCLA, and California Competes: Higher Education for a Strong Economy, December 2024:  

https://californiacompetes.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/2024_09_24-Master-Plan-final-for-post-11-26-24-v3.pdf.