Higher Ed | Daily Report

Harrison Keely/Flickr

A widening gap between ideals and reality is starkly evident in a new survey which shows Californians want the state to spend more on public higher education even as they reject revenue-raising solutions at the ballot box. 

They also seem to be in a state of denial about the depth of the state's budget problems. 

Some 74 percent of adults in California, and 70 percent of likely voters, believe that the state is not spending enough on higher education, according to a survey of 2,502 Californians by the Public Policy Institute of California conducted during the two weeks prior to the Nov. 2 election. Fifty-seven percent say that the state should increase spending on higher education, even if means cutting other programs. Nearly half (49 percent) say they would be willing to pay higher taxes rather than increasing student fees (35 percent) to pay for it.

Yet on Nov. 2, voters resoundingly rejected initiatives that asked them to pay an extra $18 to register their vehicle to fund state parks and to repeal $1.3 billion in business tax breaks approved during California's boom years. Together those initiatives could have freed up hundreds of millions of dollars to spend on higher education. (Proposition 21, the state parks initiative, was rejected by 57.5 percent of the electorate while Proposition 24, the business tax initiative, was rejected by 58.3 percent.) 

"A poor economy and persistent state budget deficit have taken a notable toll on Californians' views about state funding for public higher education," the PPIC report asserts. 

Californians are almost unanimous in believing that out of all issues facing the state's new governor, planning for higher education's future should be high up on his list. (Eighty-seven percent say that it is a "very important" or "somewhat important" task.)

At the same time, Californians have diminishing confidence in the state government's ability to carry out that task. Fifty-seven percent say that they have little or no confidence in the governor's ability to adequately plan for public higher education's future. That is a definite shift from three years ago when 57 percent said they did have confidence in the state's ability to do such planning.

But elected officials can't expect much guidance from Californians in figuring out what to do. Those polled reject any number of the strategies currently being implemented to manage the budget crisis, like raising student fees, admitting fewer students and offering fewer classes.

The only idea they seem to like, by a 57 percent majority, is to admit more out-of-state students who can be dunned to pay hefty non-resident tuition and fees  But when told that this strategy would mean there will be less room for California residents, support for importing students from beyond our borders plummets to just 26 percent.

"We know the public likes higher education and want it for their kids and grandkids, but they don't have confidence that even if they were willing to tax themselves, it would lead to the outcomes they desire, which is affordability and access," Pat Callan, president of the San Jose-based National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, told me yesterday. 

The inescapable conclusion: Many Californians want a great, low-cost public higher education system but are unwilling to make sacrifices, even minimal ones, in order to make it happen. 

As Callan put it:

"To some extent, we are being held hostage to a lack of confidence in government, but higher education has not helped by building much confidence either. In the absence of leadership, it is not surprising that people don't see a connection between problems and solutions, so they are not willing to inflict pain on themselves.