California education not what it used to be

By PIA LOPEZ
THE SACRAMENTO BEE

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California still is among the richest and most highly educated states. Whee. Hurrah. Drinks all around. Let's pat ourselves on the back.

Good news in these bleak budget times, eh?

Not so fast.

Tom Mortenson, senior scholar at the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education and publisher of the Postsecondary Education Opportunity newsletter, believes California is arrogantly riding on its past.

He has just released a report on higher education, prepared for the California Faculty Association (see www.calfac.org/calattheedge.html). He told me Thursday he was "stunned to see how far and how fast California has fallen." In the share of adults with a bachelor's degree, California was No. 1 or No. 2 from 1977 to 1987. Today the state is No. 13. Not too shabby, but clearly we're slipping.

The really bad news, however, is in the share of adults who are high school graduates. In one generation, California has dropped from the top to the bottom. The state was No. 1 or No. 2 from 1977 to 1987; today we're at No. 49. Ouch.

Part of the shift is a change in population. Today we have more children coming from a lower- income background than in the past.

Twenty years ago, one-third of kids in our public schools were lower-income; today it's more than half. But, as Mortenson's data shows, our changing population isn't the only issue.

Even a decade ago, we did better preparing lower-income kids than we do today. For example, in 1996-97, 30 percent of lower-income 18- to 24-year-olds were in college. Today, only 10 years later, that has dropped to 21 percent. We're in the bottom half of states on this.

Overall, our willingness to spend money on higher education has been declining.

In 1980, California spent $12.86 for every $1,000 of state personal income on higher education -- ranking 11th in the nation.

Today, a generation later, that has dropped to $7.71 per $1,000 of personal income -- ranking 21st in the nation. California remains above average, but that's hardly a consolation; the state is on a downward slide.

How did we get here?

Lillian Taiz, president of the CFA and a history teacher, believes this decline didn't just come out of nowhere. There have been a number of tipping points, but term limits for legislators, she believes, has led particularly to "the worst of short-term thinking in a world that demands long-term vision." The result is that we've seen a slow erosion of education as the engine of progress and opportunity in California.

The idea of upward mobility, however, is deeply rooted in American thought and practice. Thomas Jefferson, in launching the University of Virginia, sought to nurture the talents of all classes: "We hope to avail the State of those talents which nature has sown as liberally among the poor as the rich, but which perish without use, if not sought for and cultivated."

Californians ought to reclaim that tradition -- even in these difficult economic times. As Taiz says, "As a historian, I'm an optimist. The only option is to do things differently. We're all in this together and we need to change the things that got us here."

Past economic crises have brought out the can-do spirit admired in Americans the world over. So let's get to it. Let's set goals for college participation and figure out how to reach them even in tough budget times.

Lopez is a columnist and member of The Sacramento Bee editorial board.