California Makes College an Entitlement
September 26, 2000

By Abigail Thernstrom; Abigail Thernstrom, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, is the co-author of "America in Black and White: One Nation, Indivisible."

California's legislature has created a new educational entitlement: lots of kids will be going to college free of charge. Sound good? It isn't. It's likely to harm the great public universities of the state, as well as undermine California's drive for standards in elementary and secondary education. And it won't address the real problem: the inadequate academic preparation of too many high school graduates, particularly those from low-income families.

Here's how the program works. Students who maintain a B average in high school are guaranteed a grant (called a Cal Grant) sufficient to cover the costs of attending a state college or university. Even those who plan to go to private institutions like Stanford University will receive impressive help in the form of vouchers worth up to $9,708 a year. Children of the rich won't qualify, but students don't have to be poor. The annual income ceiling for a family of four is $64,100; for a family of six, it's $74,100.

There's help as well for students whose high school grades average only a C, but who are from families earning less than $33,700 a year. If they go to a community college, the state will provide roughly $1,500 for books and living expenses. If that student later transfers to a four-year school, he or she will receive full tuition plus the same stipend for additional expenses.

It's the "most ambitious financial aid program in America," Gov. Gray Davis has noted. All of California seems to be in a swoon. Every legislator voted for it. Newspapers are lavishing praise. College administrators are ecstatic. "This reinstates the California dream," one state college chancellor said.

Promoting mediocrity on behalf of middle-class kids would be a more accurate description. The program is advertised as helping the "needy," but community colleges are free, California state colleges only charge student fees, and even the elite University of California schools are inexpensive compared with private schools. Low-income students are already served by federal, state, private and university programs, and California offered no evidence that financial need was a barrier to college attendance. More low-income students will attend college only when they have the skills to do the work demanded.

The main beneficiaries of the new policy are thus likely to be middle-class students who have traditionally had limited access to scholarships. This will especially be the case if colleges use funds typically reserved for low-income applicants to help the financially unchallenged. The academically accomplished kid from a family earning, say, $85,000 a year may now have a good shot at financial aid.

A high school diploma is already close to an entitlement in the view of the American public—an unacknowledged problem in states threatening to deny diplomas to students unable to demonstrate competency in core subjects. As Ward Connerly, a University of California regent, has noted, California is now "moving toward the notion that college, too, is an entitlement instead of something you earned." What school will have the courage to turn down applicants upon whom funds have been bestowed with a promise of "access"? Admissions standards to the selective public colleges will inevitably drop; course requirements will become less rigorous.

Already inflated grades at high schools are also likely to rise. In the last decade, while national SAT scores have dropped, the percentage of students taking the test who reported an average in the A range has risen from 28 to 40 percent. Governor Davis claims that the Cal Grants will encourage students to work harder. It is more likely to force high schools to inflate grades further. If a B grade is worth up to $9,000, what "caring" teacher will give anything less?

In any case, a B is hardly a bang-up grade, and its meaning differs from one school to the next. California could have tied grants to test scores, but the idea of merit has become an elitist notion. Instead of playing entitlement games of one sort or another and throwing money where it's not needed, why not just educate the kids?

©2000 The New York Times

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