More than six decades ago, California made one of the most consequential public investments in the state’s history. Through its Master Plan for Higher Education, it built a world-class college system designed to meet the needs of an expanding middle class, a booming postwar economy and millions of young Californians seeking affordable pathways into stable careers. For generations, that model powered economic mobility and positioned California as a global leader in innovation, education and workforce development.
Today, the state faces a different but no less urgent challenge. Like much of the rest of the country, California needs more nurses, medical assistants and other frontline health workers to staff hospitals and clinics. Many workers are ready to fill those roles, correctly seeing them as one of the state’s most reliable pathways into the middle class. A new report shows that over the next 50 years, California could reach $4.4 trillion in economic gains, equating to $214,000 per working-age adult. However, another recent report shows that California’s own higher-education system is not acting as a gateway to these opportunities but as a credentialing bottleneck.
Too often, would-be learners are stopped by limited seats in low-cost programs and long waitlists that derail their prospects and drain talent from the state’s economy. Even worse, healthcare is just one of several major industries experiencing the same disconnect. Part of the challenge stems from state higher education policies that are still built around the outdated stereotype of the campus-dwelling, full-time student. These students remain important, but they are far from the only kind of learner colleges serve. Working parents, part-time students, transfer students and military-connected Californians now make up the bulk of the state’s aspiring learners.
At National University, where I serve as president, we refer to these students as “and-ers” because they are pursuing their education and working or raising families. We’ve learned that serving this emerging majority requires far more than retrofitting traditional systems with quick fixes like night classes. It means designing policies that place these students at the center of California’s economic future alongside their younger peers.
Today, about 300,000 of California’s college students are parents balancing coursework with raising children. About half of the learners enrolled in the state’s public colleges and universities work while in school. Here and across the country, these students represent the new normal of higher education. California needs policies that reflect the entirety of its student population, from young people entering college straight out of high school to single, working parents building a better future for themselves and their families.
To its credit, California has taken important steps in recent years to better support today’s learners. In 2022, the state enacted legislation requiring public colleges and universities to grant priority registration for student parents, helping ensure they can organize schedules that fit their busy lives before courses fill up. Campuses are also required to provide clear, centralized information for student parents about resources such as food assistance, tax credits and other public benefits. More recently, the state strengthened its approach to basic-needs support by formally requiring public institutions to help student parents access child-care services and related financial aid.
However, while these reforms are meaningful, they are only a start. California can begin to reimagine its approach more fully by first modernizing the rules governing Cal Grant eligibility and delivery. Today’s financial-aid system often penalizes students who enroll part time, stop out temporarily or take longer to complete credentials—exactly the patterns many working learners must follow.
Aid should follow the student in flexible, predictable ways, rather than forcing learners into an all-or-nothing choice between full-time enrollment and financial support. If earning a credential requires an untenable full-time schedule, many capable Californians will be shut out of college before they ever begin. Likewise, the state should simplify access for learners whose lives cannot revolve around campus schedules. That means working with institutions to expand high-quality online and hybrid options, streamline admissions and enrollment processes, and offer required courses for in-demand credentials consistently, at predictable times and in formats that can easily align with work and family obligations.
Finally, California should ensure that prior learning and community college credits actually count toward a four-year credential. That includes recognizing military training, work experience and industry credentials earned outside traditional degree pathways. Too often, students are required to repeat coursework they have effectively already mastered, wasting time and money while discouraging persistence and slowing entry into critical jobs. A system that values learning wherever it occurs can accelerate credential completion without sacrificing quality.
California needs more nurses, more medical assistants and more technicians. It needs more skilled professionals of all types across all industries. To make that happen, we cannot continue to rely on systems designed for a bygone era. By embracing policies and practices rooted in the realities of today’s learners, California can build a higher-education system that better serves its students and its economy.
The state now faces a choice much like the one it confronted two generations ago: Reshape higher education for the students who are here now or allow opportunity to slip through our fingers while industries struggle to find the talent they need. California’s future depends on recognizing, valuing and supporting the people eager and ready to step into the jobs our state urgently needs.