Phil Angelides Unveils "College Opportunity for All" Plan

I'm here today to talk about a critical issue for our state, and for our children's future.

An issue that will be at the heart of my campaign for Governor, and of my governorship too.

How we can ensure college opportunity for every young person in the State of California.

It's time to make college more affordable, not less; it's time to reach out to every family, every young mind aching to learn and grow, and say: if you're willing to do the work, we'll make sure you're ready and able to get a college education.

We're living in a new economic era.  The entire store of human knowledge now doubles every five years. Our children, and our children's children, will be working in jobs and industries we can't even imagine today - jobs fueled by innovation and high skills -- jobs that demand more than sweat and toil and a few years of high school.

So opening the doors to college is in our common interest.  But it's in our selfish interest too. 

California's economy is the 6th largest in the world, dwarfing most nations.

But it won't be for very much longer, unless we change the course we're on.  There's a global economic race underway, and we haven't even tied our shoelaces.

Today, we're 48th out of 50 states in student achievement, and 41st in what we spend to educate each child. Yet we have a Governor who has taken us in the wrong direction -- cutting 13,000 dollars out of every public school classroom, while protecting every special-interest boondoggle on the books.

We're 40th in the number of high school grads who go straight to college.  Yet we have a Governor who has taken us in the wrong direction.  He not only tried to eliminate every dime - every single dime -- that helps disadvantaged kids prepare for college, he broke a 40-year-old covenant in this State, by telling 22,000 kids who'd made all the grades: there's no room for you at our colleges and universities.

We've paid a steep price for Governor Schwarzenegger's policies.  In the last two years, enrollment at our community colleges is down by over 300,000 students. And at the very time when we need to recruit and train more teachers, enrollment in teacher training is down 11 percent - all because of the Governor's fee hikes.

Now, the Governor would probably argue that times are tough; he's had some trouble managing the State's budget; some sacrifices had to be made.

But it was Abraham Lincoln, at the height of the Civil War, who established land grant colleges in this country, making higher education available to millions and helping to spark and sustain the industrial revolution.

It was Franklin Roosevelt, in the middle of a world war, who proposed the G.I. Bill  -- creating the very idea that college should be within the reach of working families.

That's the America and the California I grew up in; a place where one generation would do anything to lift up the next one; a place where my grandmother could work as a seamstress, and send my dad to UC Berkeley, one of the great universities in the world.  A place where I was able to work part-time and get financial aid and student loans when my dad was laid off from his job, so I could stay in college and build a better future.

I'm running for Governor to see that every Californian has that chance.

I'm running for Governor because our economy, our basic sense of fairness and decency, demand that we help more young people -- not fewer - go to college.

I'm running because California deserves better than a Governor who raises tuition and fees -- taxing hard-working students, while giving all the breaks to those who have the most.

Today, I am announcing a sweeping new proposal that, with your help, will be my first priority as Governor - a five-point plan to reverse the dangerous Schwarzenegger slide in college access, and to make California the opportunity capital of America once again.

My first act as Governor will be to roll back the Schwarzenegger tax on college education.  Simply by bringing fees and tuition to the level they were before he raised them, we can lower the cost of a community college degree by roughly 500 dollars, the cost of a CSU degree by nearly 2,000 dollars, and the cost of a UC degree by nearly 5,000 dollars.  And I will provide our colleges and universities with the funds they need to fulfill their mission. If we're going to demand sacrifice, let's ask it of the privileged and the powerful - and give our students a break again.

Second, instead of shutting the doors to college, I'll open them wider than ever - by admitting 20,000 more students to our state colleges and universities. I'll work with California's higher education leaders, like Governors Earl Warren and Pat Brown did a half-century ago, to achieve this expansion.  College is the key to our future prosperity, and I want more people to have it.

Third, it's shameful that we're dead last among all states in the number of public school counselors per student; I'll double that number - because you can't go to college if you can't prepare for it in the first place.

Fourth, I'll make Cal Grant financial aid available to tens of thousands more middle-class families - because no hard-working family should be priced out of a good education.

Fifth and finally, I'll launch a new 21st Century land grant for higher education, by creating what I call the California Hope Endowment. By taking billions of dollars worth of badly mismanaged State property and running it like a business, we can earn roughly 300 million dollars each year -- to expand academic outreach and college prep; to increase counseling and mentoring; to endow new hope in our young people. As Governor, I want every Californian to have the chances that I've had, and that my kids have had.

My entire plan will be paid for -- line by line, dime by dime -- within a balanced state budget.  In fact, it will cost less than one-tenth of one percent of our state's annual economy.

I think that's a price worth paying to build the future of that very economy;

To give us a fighting chance in the fast-moving global marketplace -

To put our government on the side of hard-working families again.

Two years ago, when I was fighting the Governor's efforts to slash academic outreach and preparation programs, I visited Watsonville High School, and I met a woman named Maria Gama.  She came to this country, like my grandparents, without speaking a word of English.  In fact, she learned English to help her kids with their schoolwork.  But when her daughter Jenny reached the 7th grade, Maria knew she could no longer help her, because she'd never completed 7th grade herself.  She looked to the state's academic outreach programs for a helping hand.  Thank God they were there for her and her daughter Jenny.  Jenny's here with us today, and she's a thriving sophomore at UC Davis.

I'm running for Governor to fight for young people like Jenny and to help every California family live out their dreams.