It's tiresome to repeat...

From LA Times, 2-10-2026

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It's tiresome to have to repeat that California needs a new Master Plan for Higher Education, or headlines such as the one above will keep repeating.

According to the LA Times article:

UC President Clark Kerr
hands Master Plan to Gov. Pat Brown in 1960

...In the latest stress point, CSU has objected to 16 community college degree proposals, contending that they run counter to state law provisions designed to protect its own university degree offerings. Community college officials disagree and say their programs are uniquely designed to serve the needs of their district, as intended by the law. The tensions have brought into focus the changing role of community colleges since the adoption of California’s 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education. The vaunted plan laid out three distinct public systems, with local community colleges primarily offering two-year associate’s degrees and serving as transfer launching pads to CSU and the University of California...

In an effort to bring accessible and lower-cost bachelor’s degree programs to more students, a 2021 Assembly bill allowed all 116 community colleges to offer bachelor’s degrees to address “unmet workforce needs” in the districts they serve. The law expanded a 2014-approved pilot program, that allowed the California Community College Chancellor’s Office to develop bachelor’s degrees on 15 campuses. But... UC and CSU officials can object to any proposed degree that is “duplicative” of their offerings. Once an objection is raised, the program must be modified or dropped by the California Community Colleges chancellor’s office until the sides reach an agreement...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-02-10/community-colleges-cost-bachelors-degrees-csu-says-no-to-some.