Students, Lawmakers Assail Plan to End CSU Remedial Education

A proposal to phase out remedial education in the California State University system by substantially toughening admissions requirements came under heavy fire Tuesday from students, a group of state lawmakers and Latino activists during its initial hearing.

At a Cal State Board of Trustees committee meeting, the three groups of critics all warned that the proposal could result in masses of students being turned away. And the leader of a group of about 50 Latinos who staged a vocal demonstration went further, calling it “legalized segregation.”

Under the plan, the 22-campus system would stop offering the remedial English and math courses now taken by Cal State freshmen who fail placement exams and need help preparing for college-level courses.

Instead, beginning in 2001, CSU would deny admission to any student who failed the placement exams. That would disqualify about 60% of those admitted as freshmen, based on 1993 statistics, and affect minority applicants even more severely.

The proposal--which also includes provisions for Cal State students and faculty to work with public schools to help better prepare students--was prompted by concern among college trustees that the state’s schools are sending them too many students who are unprepared for college-level work.

“The basic goals are goals I think everyone can support,” said trustee and former state Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy. “The question is: How can we get there without scaring everyone half to death and closing the doors of opportunity?”

Trustees gave little public indication of their intentions Tuesday, other than insisting that the proposal is not aimed at shutting out students or disenfranchising minorities. But they did promise to hold two public hearings, one in Northern California and another in Southern California, on the proposal this fall before a scheduled vote in January.

During a more than hourlong hearing Tuesday, however, they received what appeared to be a taste of what is to come. Apart from the Latino demonstrators, the California State Student Assn., which represents the system’s 320,000 students, formally declared its opposition to the proposal.

“The plan is in direct contradiction to the CSU’s main mission of preserving access for California’s citizens to a higher education. We cannot support a policy in whole or in part that is so fundamentally opposed to what CSSA stands for,” said student association Chairman Marc Levine, the student president at Cal State Northridge.

Additionally, a group of 18 Democratic assemblymen and state senators sent a letter to the board acknowledging that public schools need drastic improvements but adding, “Simply to announce that California State University plans to close the gates to tens of thousands of students is not the answer.”

But the most vocal complaints came from the Latino demonstrators, a collection of Cal State students, community college students and even young children who accused trustees of being insensitive to minority concerns and ignorant of the problems facing inner city public schools.