Our fifth installment of The Master Plan is written by Julia I. Lopez who serves as president of the College Access Foundation of California. On Monday, 21st Century Scholar contributor, Bill Tierney, wraps things up with a final post.
The Master Plan at 50: Merging a Vision with Reality
Julia I. Lopez
President, College Access Foundation of California
For 50 years, California’s Master Plan for Higher Education has served as a vital policy framework that connects our higher education needs to our continued prosperity. But a closer look shows that the Master Plan is no longer the driving force that it once was; instead, it has fallen victim to years of indecision and neglect.
Like most landmark institutions, the Master Plan should be preserved but updated to meet the needs of California in the 21st century. This means reexamining how the system functions, and refocusing its priorities to ensure that student success is high on the list.
The need for a college-educated population has been well established. Over the next decade, two-thirds of all jobs created in California will require some form of post-secondary credential. The Public Policy Institute of California estimates that by 2025, the state’s employers will require an additional one million college graduates over what our colleges and universities will likely produce if current trends continue. They stress that California is unlikely to reach that goal without major changes in the way its higher education system currently functions.
Just six in 10 students graduate from our four-year institutions in six years – and just three in 10 who attend community colleges transfer to a four-year university or get their certificate or associate’s degree. Certainly, students bear primary responsibility for their own success. But California’s higher education institutions must also respond to the realities of the state and families’ budgets. They are in the best position to devise systems and strategies to improve the chances of students persisting and graduating.
Some of our public systems are renewing efforts to take on this challenge, even with fewer resources. The California State University system has just announced a goal to raise graduation rates by 8 percent by the end of 2016, and the Chancellor of California’s Community Colleges has made improving transfer rates to 4-year institutions one of his top priorities. These are promising steps that begin to add much-needed specifics to the broad goals of the Master Plan.
As a major private source of scholarship dollars in the state, College Access Foundation of California spends close to $10 million every year for scholarships to approximately 4,000 low-income California students, most of whom are the first in their family to attend college.
We began following thousands of scholarship recipients to learn more about how our dollars can help more students graduate. More than eight out of every 10 students who received our support last year enrolled in California’s public colleges and universities, demonstrating their deep trust in the state’s higher education system.
We are inspired by these young people who embody the vision and ideals of California’s Master Plan. But it is up to all of us to ensure that the state’s higher education system can continue to deliver on their aspirations.
About the author: Julia I. Lopez began serving as the President and CEO of College Access Foundation of California in November 2008. Before joining College Access Foundation, Julia served as Senior Vice President of the Rockefeller Foundation. In her earlier work for Rockefeller, she served as the Director of the foundation’s Working Communities program, addressing urban poverty and education in the United States.
