Revisionist Reflections on California's Master Plan @50

Abstract

THE CALIFORNIA Journal of Politics & Policy Volume 3, Issue 1 Revisionist Reflections on California’s Master Plan @50 John Aubrey Douglass University of California, Berkeley Abstract California’s “master plan” is arguably the most influential effort to plan the future of a system of higher education in American history. But there is confusion about how the Master Plan came about, what it said, and whether it is still relevant. The Master Plan’s historic accomplishment has been its ability to provide broad access to a system of high quality, mission differentiated, and affordable higher educa- tion institutions that have grown with the state’s population and successfully met a steadily rising demand for access to higher education. But the fiscal health and productivity of California’s higher education system has been seriously eroded in recent decades, and the Great Recession has accelerated this trajectory. In the past two years, public funding for higher education has been cut steeply, tuition and fees have climbed, budgets have been cut, and enrollment has been limited. This essay explains how California developed its pioneering higher education system, what the 1960 Master Plan accomplished, and the current problems facing this system in the midst of the Great Recession. Keywords: educational attainment, California Master Plan, socioeconomic mo- bility, economic competiveness, Great Recession www.bepress.com/cjpp