Opinion: Calif. colleges aren’t closing skills gap
By Dan Walters, Sacramento Bee
The Public Policy Institute of California analyzes dozens of pithy issues, but sitting atop its priority list is the state’s troubled higher education system.
Dan Walters
Once the envy of the world, California’s three-level system – the University of California, the California State University system, and more than 100 locally governed community colleges – is now buffeted by a perfect economic, cultural and political storm.
PPIC’s latest report underscores its dilemma. It found that “the vast majority of students entering California’s community colleges are identified as unprepared for college and placed in remedial courses…”
Obviously, that’s not the community colleges’ fault, but rather one of the effects of an equally troubled K-12 system, which awards diplomas to students lacking the academic achievement they need to succeed as adults.
