Higher Education

Conflicts of interest almost always involve money, but sometimes they raise more questions about the subjects' perspective than about their wallets. Consider the large investments University of California Regent Richard C. Blum has made in two for-profit higher education companies, Career Education Corp. and ITT Educational Services Inc. Blum's San Francisco investment firm is the largest shareholder in both firms, owning nearly 20% of Career Education and more than 10% of ITT Educational.

The Senate gave final approval to a five-year extension of higher education programs that lowers interest rates for student loans and raises grant levels. The bill, painstakingly negotiated over the last 18 months, was approved, 96 to 0, after the House passed the measure the day before.

William Trombley, a veteran journalist and education analyst who wrote for Life magazine and The Times during a five-decade career, died Sunday at a Davis hospital. He was 80. Trombley had respiratory and other problems and died after a heart attack in the hospital, said his wife, Audrey. At The Times, where he was a reporter for nearly 30 years starting in 1964, Trombley was known for reshaping the paper's coverage of higher education, starting on the beat during a tumultuous period when the Free Speech Movement was roiling college campuses from California to New York.

State Treasurer Phil Angelides on Tuesday urged creation of a $5-billion endowment for California higher education through the development and possible sale of state-owned properties, including urban land and unused warehouses. With public funding for the state's colleges and universities slipping even as their enrollments grow, Angelides said his proposal could ultimately provide an extra $300 million annually for scholarships, counseling and academic preparation efforts.

Thank you for your editorial "Handcuffed Higher Education" (Nov. 23). I was gratified that you gave recognition to the reputation for quality that my university has built and was pleased that you called attention to eliminating the Gann limit on expenditures for higher education if the state is to continue to honor its commitment to provide the opportunity for all qualified students to complete a university education. The gradual starvation of higher education that began two decades ago and accelerated with the passage of Proposition 13 has reached a point where the lack of funding may soon force a change in the state's longstanding and recently reaffirmed policy on higher education.

An independent report on higher education flunks most states when it comes to affordability. It gives better but mixed grades in other areas, such as college participation and completion rates. The biennial study by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education being released today evaluates how well higher education is serving the public -- and leaves little doubt where the system is failing. Forty-three states received Fs for affordability, up from 36 two years ago.

For the first time, states now spend more on health care than higher education, according to a study released at a conference of state legislators here Monday. The study found that state spending on Medicaid, the joint state-federal program that provides health care for the poor, soared by 17.6% in fiscal 1993 and exceeds the amount states spend on higher education by one-sixth.

The nation's colleges and universities play essential and critical roles in American society. In addition to transmitting fundamental cultural values, colleges and universities are crucial to continued economic growth and development. Rapid innovations in electronic technology, medicine, law and engineering can be traced directly to scholars and students studying and working in many of our teaching and research institutions.

Of all the changes that have transformed American society in the last quarter century, none is more important than the expansion of public higher education. And no state in the nation has supported higher education as generously--or reaped as many benefits from it--as California. The California system was born with the 1960 Master Plan, largely the product of former UC President Clark Kerr's inventive mind.