Rethinking Higher Education in California

I agree that California should make a greater commitment to students who attend the community colleges.

In rethinking higher education, however, your analysis should not ignore the existence of the state’s independent colleges and universities--more than 60 of them with close to 100,000 students. Yearly they produce about 25% of California’s baccalaureate degrees, roughly the same percentage as the entire UC system.

You are probably right to say that “California has a system of public higher education without peer in the nation.” But don’t forget the excellence of California schools like Stanford, USC, the Claremont colleges, Santa Clara, and others (including my own). We are being silly if these are excluded as “partners” in the master plan.

Allow me to focus on one reason why the independent colleges should be included. Our state Constitution forbids direct tax support to private education. But the Cal Grant programs (state scholarships) have, over the years, given thousands of students and their families a much wider and more varied choice in college selection. I trust you recognize the far-reaching benefits of these programs to all of us in the state; in short, they save us vast sums of public dollars and help to produce a more diversely talented and trained citizenry.

Unfortunately the financing of Cal Grant programs has begun to lag. Meanwhile the cost of a college education, whether public or private, keeps rising. Federal sources of financial aid are dwindling. Students have to take out increasingly larger loans. Excessively long hours at jobs interfere with their studies. Many find that, even with great personal sacrifice, they simply cannot afford to attend the college of their choice.

Consider this: Financial aid to independent college students through the Cal Grant programs is way less than 1% of what California spends each year on all higher education, just slightly more than 2% of what it spends on four-year high education. What a bargain! It is obvious to me that we must encourage support for reasonable increases in California’s Cal Grants programs. It won’t cost that much.

Ironically, the negligible cost of aid to independent college students may explain the exclusion of independent colleges in the rethinking of the state’s Master Plan for Higher Education. But it would be an even greater irony if this exclusion leads to the exclusion of economically and socially struggling students from independent colleges. Again, we are being silly if the independent colleges--with the University of California, the state universities and community colleges--are not included as a fourth partner in California’s planning for higher education.

JAMES N. LOUGHRAN, S.J.

President

Loyola Marymount University