By Russell S. Gould and Elizabeth Hill

Thanks to our parents’ and grandparents’ generations, when we were growing up in California we knew that if we did the work in high school there was a place for us in the University of California or the California State University systems.

State policymakers and taxpayers supported a master plan for higher education and were committed to both systems financially, keeping fees low and making access for all Californians a priority. State investment in public higher education was seen as critical to California’s future economic and social success.

Unfortunately, competing budget priorities and circumstances in the last 20 years have called California’s commitment to public higher education into question, and the state is turning away qualified students.

Read the full op-ed at The Sacramento Bee.