The Situation

California, the most populace state in the Union, continues to have the largest number of Latinos as part of its population. The 2000 Census revealed that the Latino population is larger than all other ethnic/racial groups combined (African Americans, Asians, Pacific Islanders, Native Americans). Moreover, Latinos in this state are a youthful group, with a high fertility rate resulting in large and rapidly increasing numbers of children approaching college age. Already, Latino students represent almost 48 percent of the K-6 enrollment in the major school districts of Southern California. At the K-12 level, they are approximately 39 percent of the total student enrollment in the state. Latinos will surpass Whites as the largest population group in California within the next few years. In spite of their high drop-out rate in the public schools, Latino students now outnumber Whites as the largest number of students graduating from California high schools. However, they are, along with Native Americans, the most underrepresented students in California higher education, with almost 72 percent of them attending two-year colleges where only 18 percent ever transfer to a four-year college or university.

California has four segments of higher education: the University of California (UC) with 10 campuses and an enrollment of more than 180,000; the California State University (CSU) with 23 campuses enrolling more than 360,000; the California Community Colleges (CCC) with 72 locally governed districts operating 108 colleges with an enrollment of 1.5 million; and, the Independent Colleges and Universities with 76 colleges and universities and an enrollment of more than 215,000 students. The enrollments at California colleges and universities are projected to increase dramatically in the next eight years, with the two-year colleges reaching two million, the CSU 479,485, the independents' 402,000, and the UC 229,724 students. At the moment, Latinos represent approximately 13 percent of the UC total enrollment, 24 percent of the CSU enrollment, approximately 30 percent of the CCC enrollments, and 16 percent of the Independent Colleges and Universities enrollments. There is a serious discrepancy between the substantial increase in the number of Latino students moving through the K-12 grades and the relatively modest percentage of these students who manage to gain access to one of the California systems of higher education, especially at the most selective campuses of the UC, CSU, and Independent Colleges and Universities. Student enrollment projections for the next eight years provided by the California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC) have been looked at critically by numerous scholars and groups. These experts, most notably Professor Leobardo Estrada, a nationally recognized demographer at UCLA, believe the CPEC student population projections are too conservative. Be that as it may, the increasing number of Latino students enrolling in California schools and rapidly reaching college age poses serious challenges for California higher education.

Challenges for California

Business and financial concerns in California, starting with the aftermath of the Energy Crises, the implosion of dot.com ventures, and followed by the consequences of the September 11, 2001 terrorists' attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, have combined to arrest the state's economic development. While the budgets of all segments of higher education were increased for the 2001-2002 fiscal year, the decreasing state revenues and outstanding energy purchasing agreements will create a serious financial problem for California in 2002. Consequently, the state-supported colleges and universities have been told to prepare for budget cuts that could reduce their revenues from the State of California by as much as 10 percent.

One development in the 2001-2002 State Budget negotiation that deserves mention is the governor's elimination (by veto) of $150 million that would have provided two-year colleges with funds to refurbish existing facilities and add much-needed classroom/laboratory space. It should be underscored that more than 70 percent of Latino students in California opt to enroll at a community college, and the elimination of these funds will limit the quality and quantity of facilities available to them in the next few years.Space at the University of California continues to be a pressing problem as the demand for access to UC, especially at the two most selective campuses - Berkeley and UCLA - results in thousands of highly qualified students being turned away. In the last year, more than four thousand students with Grade Point Averages (GPA) of 4.0 and strong standardized test scores were turned away at Berkeley and UCLA. Because of the intense competition among students for access to the limited number of freshman places at these two UC campuses, the admission process has become highly selective, creating serious challenges for underrepresented students, particularly Latinos, who come from rural and inner city schools. A similar phenomenon is occurring at three of the CSU campuses: Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, San Diego State University, and CSU Long Beach.

Limited space at the most selective campuses of the UC and CSU create serious problems for underrepresented students. As an example, Latino students unable, for several reasons, to do better on standardized tests, to enroll in Advanced Placement courses, and to complete all of the A to G course requirements, including honors classes, find themselves unable to compete successfully with Asian and White students for access to the most selective campuses in the state.

Governmental Activities

There are several efforts underway to address some of the challenges the State of California faces in finding ways to accommodate more students, especially Latinos, at four-year colleges and universities. At the state level, the governor and the legislature have acted to support the public systems with additional funding. However, there are differences in how the governor and the legislature have decided to support the UC, CSU, and the CCCs.

The governor's office, through the Department of Finance, has crafted budget augmentations for the UC to add more students and keep fees at a stable level with little or no increases. Moreover, additional financial aid resources, mostly in the form of loans, have been made available to the various systems. Even though the governor vetoed the $150 million item in the State Budget that would have provided funding to refurbish and increase community college facilities, he did allocate modest additional monies in his budget for the use of the two- and four-year colleges and universities.

The legislature added resources to the State Budget to support "outreach activities" at the University of California. Outreach services at UC include a wide variety of programs that range from working with middle and high schools to better inform and prepare target students from underrepresented groups for college, to small faculty programs designed to recruit economically and educationally disadvantaged students into the sciences, engineering, and mathematics. UC received an augmentation of more than $28 million for outreach services, tacitly designed to help underrepresented youngsters prepare for college. However, the legislature is asking UC to do an extensive cataloging of the many projects that call themselves outreach efforts to identify and eliminate programs that do not serve underrepresented groups. The CSU also received a modest increase to help the 23 campuses find ways to help prepare and attract more underrepresented students. However, the CSU does not have the extensive types of programs used by UC to provide information, motivational support, and tutorial services in the middle and high schools for underrepresented groups. The major challenge for CSU is retention, and the need for programs to improve the retention and graduation rates of Latino students.

A third element that must be factored into the policy negotiations in California is activities by the legislature's Joint Committee to Develop a Master Plan for Education, K through University. This legislative effort is aimed at revising the California Master Plan for Higher Education developed in the 1960s, with a few modifications in the intervening decades. On the surface, the goal of making education a cohesive, seamless process to help student's transition from Kindergarten through the university level appears highly desirable. However, there are some structural and practical concerns associated with the deliberations on this topic. More will be said about this later.

The competition between K-12 and higher education for attention and funding in California has not been well defined or properly discussed. Under Proposition 98, passed by the voters in the late 1980s, K-12, and less so the two-year colleges, receive categorical funding within the state's constitution. The UC and CSU do not have such a guarantee for State of California funding, and must compete with agencies like the Correctional System and the Department of Transportation. This has resulted in a gradual erosion of support within the last decade for the universities as far as a percentage of the monies allocated to them in the State Budget.

Areas of Concern

There are some important matters, dealing with Latinos and higher education in California, that need to be mentioned, and a few discussed briefly. Some issues, such as the passage of the Firebaugh Bill that allows undocumented students who have been in California for three years, or have initiated paperwork to become naturalized citizens, to pay in-state fees (tuition) at two- and four-year publicly supported colleges and universities. The bill passed through the Assembly and then the Senate during the previous legislative session and was not signed by the governor. This year, Latinos worked closely with the governor's office to make certain he would sign the new version of the bill into law, which he did in Fall 2001.

Another concern for Latinos is the Joint Committee to Develop a Master Plan for Education, K through University. There is a critical need to include more Latino scholars and resource persons in the subgroups developed to assist the committee staff in crafting the language and provisions of the new master plan. Moreover, most of the discussion and efforts of the working groups have been focused on K-12 issues, but without any specific mention of Latinos as the largest and fastest growing part of the student population in the schools. A coalition of Latino groups has called upon State Senator Richard Alarcon (D-20th District) to hold hearings in the fall of 2001 on Latinos and the California Master Plan for Education. A similar move is underway in the State Assembly.

Two other significant concerns are increasing the funds the State of California provides to low income and inner city schools for "Test Preparation" and participation in the Advanced Placement Program (AP). A few years ago, the State Legislature, with the governor's endorsement, allocated several million dollars to help school districts with limited resources and high enrollments of underrepresented students provide tutorial assistance to students unfamiliar with standardized testing. In addition, several millions of dollars were also made available to low income school districts to offer AP courses and subsidize the cost of the examinations for such courses. Very recently, the governor, realizing the advantage students with several AP courses enjoyed in the application process to selective colleges and universities (such as earning added points to their GPA which allowed some to have a 4.4 GPA), provided extra money in the budget to develop these classes in schools that did not have them. The governor has publicly stated that he wants every California high school to have at least four AP courses within the next few years. Latinos are asking the governor and the legislature to give priority to rural and low-income inner city schools with high enrollments of underrepresented students.

So far, too little attention has been devoted to the serious challenges Latino students encounter at the four-year universities. The persistence of Latino students in California public higher education is troubling. At four of the CSU campuses within the Los Angeles Basin, more than 75 percent of Latino students leave the universities by the end of their first academic year. At other CSU campuses in areas with large concentrations of Latinos, the graduation rate for these students after six years is less than 30 percent. Latino students are disproportionately in need of remediation courses in English, mathematics, and the hard sciences, which frequently result in their becoming ineligible to remain at the CSU after their third semester or fifth quarter. The UC does a much better job of retaining its students by providing mandatory study halls, enrolling students in courses during the Freshman year to build basic skills, and providing tutorial assistance to those with limited skills in core areas. At the two-year colleges, the "tracking" of talented Latino students into vocational or terminal programs continues to be a serious problem, preventing many of them from ever transferring to a four-year college or university. Some of the community colleges do not offer the types of courses that either the UC or the CSU requires at the lower division. Another serious concern at the two-year colleges is the length of time students, especially Latinos, need to spend at these institutions in order to qualify for transfer to a four-year campus. Usually, remaining at a two-year campus for more than six semesters will seriously diminish their financial assistance package at a four-year campus. These are but a few examples of the challenges Latino students face in persisting and graduating with a B.A. or a B.S.

Recommendations

There are several areas being discussed by policy makers in California, most of them applicable to Latino students, designed to improve access, persistence, and graduation rates at the publicly supported campuses. Some of the deliberations and proposed actions include:

• Providing additional educational support funds to low performing schools with high enrollments of Latino students to support Test Preparation programs, to offer AP classes, and to subsidize AP exams.
• Better defining and assessing Outreach Services at the UC before additional funds are channeled into the broad area of "outreach."
• Better coordinating and accountability for outreach funds and efforts carried on atthe CSU campuses.
• Exploring the entire question of remediation courses and how to improve a student's basic skills in critical subject areas.
• Revisiting the high drop-out rate of Latino students at two- and four-year public campuses.
• Improving teacher preparation and continuing education programs for practicing school teachers in the teacher training programs at four-year campuses.

The coming legislative session in California will be a busy one as the governor, the legislature, and others wrestle with a declining economy, an increasing population of Latino students--many of them the first ones in their families to consider going to college--and developing strategies to increase access to, persistence and graduation from, four-year campuses.