The student aid program known as Cal Grants is the last vestige of a transformative California vision of the role of higher education in building a society and an economy. If these grants are eliminated to help close the deficit, as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed, the character of California will be depressingly and devastatingly altered. The vision was embodied in the California Master Plan for Higher Education that became law in 1960 as the Donohoe Act. The guiding premise is this: The only limit on a Californian’s higher education should be the individual’s academic proficiency. Gov. Pat Brown and his colleagues understood that a highly educated populace is the foundation of prosperity. The flood of Californians who became college educated thanks to the Master Plan literally made this state, unleashing the creativity and entrepreneurship that made California one of the top 10 economies in the world.

Read full article [here].
by David P. Lopez, The San Jose Mercury News.

Posted: June 1st, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.