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Report Finds That Higher Education Finance Problems Limit Student Opportunity and Threaten California’s Future
-A new report from College Futures Foundation calls for comprehensive changes to address systemic problems in the way that California funds, budgets for, and makes financial decisions about its public university systems. The report, Securing the Public Trust: Practical Steps toward Higher Education Finance Reform in California, is available today at http://higheredfinance.org/ “The promise of an opportunity for a Read more >
Publications & Research
Securing the Public Trust: Practical Steps Toward Higher Education Finance Reform in California (2017)
The system for financing our public universities in California isn’t working. If we want our next generation of students to succeed and if we want our state to be competitive in the global economy, we will need to tackle this issue. We must start by building a shared understanding between public policy makers and higher Read more >
News & Commentary
Why We Need Higher Education Finance Reform for Our Students, Institutions, and State
California’s economic health and civil society are being imperiled by an outdated and increasingly dysfunctional approach to paying for its public university systems—the California State University and the University of California. Without change, each year many more qualified and motivated California students will be turned away from the opportunity to get a college degree. Reforming Read more >
Publications & Research
Trial and Error: California Students Make the Best of An Improving Yet Complex Transfer Process (2016)
Community colleges serve a crucial function in California’s higher education landscape. Last year, 74,000 students transferred from community colleges to a campus in the California State University (CSU) or University of California (UC) systems. Half of all bachelor’s degrees conferred by the CSU in 2016, and one third of those by the UC, went to Read more >
Publications & Research
Effective Practices for Postsecondary Student Success in California (2016)
For many of California’s young people, the path to a college degree is the path to social mobility, economic advancement, and success in life. But that path is filled with twists, turns, and obstacles. California faces a major challenge meeting projected workforce demand for bachelor’s degrees in the next 15 years. The state has recognized Read more >
Publications & Research
Prospects for State General Fund Revenues for Higher Education (2016)
California’s General Fund revenue and expenditure trend lines create an uncertain trajectory that is unlikely to both meet expected costs and provide for significant increase in students for the state’s public university systems. This paper by Mark Hill, California State Department of Finance (retired), reviews past and possible future trends affecting General Fund availability for Read more >
Publications & Research
Improving Equity: Increasing Baccalaureate Attainment of Underrepresented Students in California (2016)
Low-income and first-generation college students—most of whom come from racial or ethnic groups that have historically been underrepresented in higher education—are the face of California’s future. Although now the majority of high school graduates, their baccalaureate attainment rates are only one-third of those belonging to White and Asian students. Meanwhile, California faces a looming shortage Read more >
Publications & Research
Recent Statewide Reforms in Higher Education Financing and Accountability: Emerging Lessons from the States (2017)
This paper, by Jane Wellman and Darcie Harvey, examines reforms to historic approaches of paying for higher education in other states with the goal of finding and highlighting relevant lessons that California can apply to its current higher education financing efforts. Historically, financing higher education has been left primarily to the states. Because states have Read more >
Publications & Research
Historic Dynamics Shaping the Higher Education Budget in California (2016)
The California state budget for higher education has gone through a number of iterations over the years, from the early days when both university systems were funded almost entirely from state general funds to the current day. The behavioral and fiscal attributes of the current process bear many traces of this history. This brief by Read more >