Cal State Hopes to Stem Dropouts

I was interested to note that the California State University System is concerned that their students do not finish in five years. They were quick to assign the blame for this failure on the high schools who “just do not prepare the students well enough so they can complete the courses.”

Having had five children pass through four separate branches of CSU, I can attest that the major reason capable students cannot finish in five years (and when did five years become the standard rather than four?) is that CSU does not provide the number of classes that allows the completion. Semester after semester, quarter after quarter, my sons and daughters were stuck with 9 units and the necessity to “crash” classes in order to carry a reasonably full load.

If the university does not provide the courses necessary for students to complete their programs in the normal number of years, how can that be the fault of the preparing high schools?

For too long the CSU and UC systems have existed for the professors’ convenience instead of the students, and the meager increases the Legislature provides are used at the graduate level instead of providing additional classes for undergraduates who really need them.

The new entrance requirements of CSU will lead to their demise just as the community colleges’ lack of direction has led to theirs. Higher education in this state is in a real mess and it isn’t the fault of the high schools no matter how much finger-pointing goes on from those who should know better.

JACK PRICE

Palos Verdes Estates

Price is superintendent of schools of the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District.