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Taxpayer Investment in Higher Education Contributes to California's Economic Prosperity
By Richard C. Atkinson

Recent history reminds us of just how critical public investments in higher education have been to California's economy. Less than a decade ago, California was enduring a brutal recession, brought on by tremendous job cutbacks in defense and aerospace. Unemployment reached 9.4 percent in 1993 - a dramatic loss of jobs and income.

Yet today, our state is riding the crest of a booming economy. The 1999 Gross State Product was $1.2 trillion and per capita income was $29,819, according to the state Department of Trade and Commerce's Office of Economic Research. Rather than unemployment, headlines in California these days speak about finding enough qualified employees to fill the available job openings. The unemployment rate in 1999 had plummeted to 4.6 percent - a 30-year low.

This recovery and the six-year-long expansion of California's fiscal well-being are due, in no small part, to the generosity of California's taxpayers in financing public higher education. By continuing to provide financial support to the University of California, even during the worst of economic times, the taxpayers have allowed the University to help usher in some of the state's best economic times.

California tax dollars helped make possible the birth of the biotechnology industry, Silicon Valley, agricultural products that sell around the world because they are superior to other varieties - the list could go on and on. In a high-tech economy that places a premium on research and innovation, the publicly-supported discoveries made by UC researchers are creating jobs and paychecks across California.

Public investments in the University also help to educate the workers needed to make such an advanced economic system work in a fiercely competitive international marketplace. Over an eight-year period ending in 2005, the University is planning to increase enrollments in engineering and computer science at the undergraduate and graduate levels by 50 percent. Our enrollments in these fields have already increased substantially, thanks to the support of the governor, Legislature and taxpayers of California.

These students represent the future of California's economy - those who will be responsible for the technological breakthroughs that will help sustain California's economic prosperity. They also will help meet the state's critical workforce needs.

But to succeed in the 21st century economy, students must be adequately prepared - beginning in the earliest primary grades. To that end, the University of California is working with our K-12 colleagues in seeking to improve education in our public schools. Just one example is Governor Gray Davis' Reading Professional Development Institutes, which in their first year provided 6,300 K-3 teachers with 40 hours of intensive seminars on UC and other campuses during the summer and 80 hours of continued professional development activities during the regular school term. The program has expanded this year to include 24,000 teachers from pre-kindergarten through the third grade. The long-term benefits to California will be immense.

Recognizing that in the Knowledge Economy virtually every field will require lifelong learning, UC is establishing a Master of Advanced Study degree (MAS) for those already in the workforce. It will offer advanced professional education and advanced liberal studies at times and in formats that are convenient for working adults.

Yet other challenges still await the University. Estimates are that over a 12-year period ending in 2010, we will need to increase our enrollments by a staggering 43 percent - an additional 63,000 students - which is the equivalent of UC's total enrollment growth over the past 30 years. To meet this demand, referred to as Tidal Wave II, we will need to build more laboratories and classrooms, as well as to hire some 3,000 new faculty members. That doesn't count the faculty we must hire to replace those who retire or leave.

Californians have historically been generous to the University of California, and for that, the University is grateful. But taxpayers have been wise as well as generous. There are few investments of taxpayer dollars that have a better payoff than research and education. They create new industries, expand existing ones and provide the well-educated workforce essential to keep California one of the world's true economic powerhouses.

Richard C. Atkinson is the president of the University of California