"Master Plan Turncoats"

"Overall, two-thirds of the Assembly and Senate members attended a community college, Cal State or UC, many of them two or three of these institutions. These leaders, in other words, built their careers in public service upon the foundation of the state's esteemed Master Plan for Higher Education—now in tatters—that assured an education to every qualified student in California. Of the 42 Republicans in the Legislature—none of whom has yet to provide one of the two GOP votes needed in each chamber to put the tax extension on the ballot—29 are products of the state's higher education system. They include the Senate and Assembly minority leaders—who attended Los Angeles Valley College and Fresno State, respectively—as well as the vice chairman of the Assembly's Higher Education Committee, who went to UC Irvine."

Gene Block, chancellor of UCLA, argues in the Los Angeles Times that beneficiaries of public higher education in California should fight to preserve the system.