State Treasurer Phil Angelides has announced a proposal for an estimated $5 billion endowment to help pay the costs of higher education. Dubbed the “California Hope Endowment,” the money would provide funding for the University of California, California State University and community colleges.
“It is going to be a powerful challenge to open the door of college wider to more students, but it must be done if California is to have a chance of succeeding in the 21st-century global economy,” Angelides said at an Oct. 19 press conference in Sacramento, Calif., where he first announced the plan.
If passed by the California Legislature, the proposal would direct the state to sell underused public land to private holders. It also calls for the development of such lands for affordable housing.
Money drawn from the surplus lands would then be used to fund scholarships and academic outreach programs at both the college and high school level.
The treasurer also used the press conference to criticize the 2004-05 state budget and its treatment of higher education, citing grievances that included the state’s failure to increase financial aid and “hiking up college fees up and down the line.”
“For the first time ever, this state is developing policies that will result in fewer kids going to school,” Angelides said.
Land that qualifies for sale under the proposal is described by Angelides as “urban land clearly suitable for development.” Eligible property does not include rural or environmentally protected lands.
Angelides cited a Department of Motor Vehicles parking lot in San Francisco that, if sold, could yield as much as $25 million.
“Well-located, urban state-owned properties like the DMV site in San Francisco have been eyed by developers like myself for a very long time — drooling might be another word [for it],” said Carol Galante, president and CEO of BRIDGE Housing Corporation, a non-profit organization that develops affordable housing.
Galante was one of five speakers at the press conference who voiced their approval for the California Hope Endowment. Other speakers included UC Berkeley professor of real estate development Robert Edelstein, Cal State Sacramento education professor Ken Futernick, UC Davis freshman Jenny Gama and former state Secretary of Education Gary Hart.
Speakers described Angelides’ plan as “imaginative” and “innovative.”
“Fundamentally, the rationalizing and liquefying of an underutilized asset land makes just a lot of sense,” Edelstein said. “Not all land, but the appropriate land.”
The University of California expressed approval for this type of funding scheme but has stopped short of endorsing Angelides’ proposal.
“The university supports the goals of increasing student financial assistance and expanding state funding for higher education, but we have not had an opportunity to examine the treasurer’s recent proposal in detail,” UC spokesman Paul Schwartz stated in an e-mail.
If it comes to full fruition, the endowment could become the seventh-largest higher education endowment in the country — with a projected annual return of $300 million, according to Angelides.
“The endowment’s annual revenue can fund full scholarships for 385,000 community college students, or give a scholarship for fees and all other costs to 19,000 CSU students” if entirely used for student financial aid, Angelides’ spokesman Mitchel Benson stated in a press release.
