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There's a reason why California has the CC/CSU/UC system split up. Each system and tackle different missions within public education. The CC system works for a

There's a reason why California has the CC/CSU/UC system split up. Each system and tackle different missions within public education. The CC system works for adults with many weekend/night offerings and a huge emphasis on usable skills and trades. The CSU system is the budget/value offering to young adults with a good blend of trades/liberal arts with a focus on practical applications. Both of these systems are excellent for high volume upward mobility when they're functioning. Then there's the UC system which serves as the halo product that's supposed to draw in or retain the best and brightest. This mostly serves to keep the middle class from leaving California, or when that fails, draw in upper-middle class from elsewhere. Are California's "elite public institutions" doing less for upward mobility than the CC/CSU system? Probably, but that's not it's main mission. It's trying to preserve the existing middle class, which is arguably just as important as raising the lower class.

DrScump 9y ago
"The CSU system is the budget/value offering to young adults with a good blend of trades/liberal arts with a focus on practical applications." They also provide a cheaper way to get the bulk of your first two years' credits in place before proceeding to a "four-year" university.
- djrogers 9y ago
  No, that would be the CC system - Cal States are 4 years schools.
  - DrScump 9y ago
    Not sure where my copy/paste went awry, but "they" should have referred to community colleges. (I have degrees from both the CC and CSU systems.)
- dragonwriter 9y ago
  CSUs and UCs are both four-year (plus, as both offer graduate as well as undergraduate education) schools. You may be thinking of California's not public community college system.
  - kenhwang 9y ago
    There's a not-public system? The one I'm aware of is very much public: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Community_Colleges_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Community_Colleges_...
    - dragonwriter 9y ago
      The “not” was spurious; I'm not (and I mean that one) sure of how it got there.

DrScump 9y ago

"The CSU system is the budget/value offering to young adults with a good blend of trades/liberal arts with a focus on practical applications." They also provide a cheaper way to get the bulk of your first two years' credits in place before proceeding to a "four-year" university.

djrogers 9y ago
No, that would be the CC system - Cal States are 4 years schools.
- DrScump 9y ago
  Not sure where my copy/paste went awry, but "they" should have referred to community colleges. (I have degrees from both the CC and CSU systems.)
dragonwriter 9y ago
CSUs and UCs are both four-year (plus, as both offer graduate as well as undergraduate education) schools. You may be thinking of California's not public community college system.
- kenhwang 9y ago
  There's a not-public system? The one I'm aware of is very much public: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Community_Colleges_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Community_Colleges_...
  - dragonwriter 9y ago
    The “not” was spurious; I'm not (and I mean that one) sure of how it got there.