College Funding Guidance Needed

Last month Gov. Gray Davis proposed a historically huge 12.8% increase in spending on the state’s three tiers of higher education: community colleges, California State universities and University of California campuses. More recently, state legislators have discussed allocating some of the ballooning budget surplus to higher education.

All this money could help ensure that graduate programs in California remain among the world’s best and that undergraduate programs are able to accommodate the demands of “Tidal Wave II,” a 36% enrollment surge expected over the next decade as more children of baby boomers reach college age.

Just as easily, though, higher education’s boon could turn boondoggle.

Given the governor’s and the Legislature’s focus on improving K-12 education, there is a danger that educators will be given a lot of money this year without guidelines on how to spend it wisely and effectively.

So far, Davis has focused on narrow, parochial issues. For instance, he has pleased Central Valley civic leaders by proposing to spend $1 billion building a new UC campus in Merced and peeved Cal State officials by insisting that they get $10 million in start-up funds for an Oxnard campus only if they make more progress on a satellite campus in Stockton. Davis should take a broader view that would tie higher education budget increases to the same sort of accountability measures he has proposed for public elementary and secondary schools.

Top priority for budget increases should go to those colleges and universities that manage to open summer sessions. As the state legislative analyst’s office plans to point out in a report Thursday, year-round operations could make room for a 33% growth in enrollment for a fraction of the cost of building new campuses like UC Merced. Some of the proposed increase in higher education spending should go to eliminating current disincentives for summer school. Last year at UCLA, for instance, an undergraduate paid $1,828 to take a full load of four courses (16 units) during summer school but only $1,226 for a full load of courses during any other term--fall, winter or spring.

Davis, who served for many years on UC’s governing board of regents, arguably knows higher education issues better than any of his predecessors. He should apply his knowledge and experience to ensuring that higher education’s new money gets to the right places.