The Buzz: UC, CSU leaders still back online courses, Jerry Brown says

UC, CSU leaders still backing online courses, governor says

It’s not normal for a governor to veto his own idea, but that’s what Gov. Jerry Brown did last week when he blue-penciled a $20 million earmark for online education at the University of California and California State University.

Monday, he said university leaders assured him they would pursue online courses on their own.

“I had an agreement from both the segments that they would carry out online vigorously,” Brown told reporters at an event in Sacramento. “As the leader of both governing boards, I’m actively engaged with both the University of California and the Cal State.”

Brown left the $20 million in funding for the systems intact, but without tying it to online education. He said he is “completely confident” the UC and CSU systems will expand their online course offerings without a budget requirement.

Brown’s tone was different last fall, when he started regularly attending UC meetings to call for spending reductions and increased efficiency.

“We are going to have to restrain this system in many, many of its elements,” the Democratic governor said in November, “and this will come with great resistance.”

On Monday, Brown said of the university systems, “I didn’t want them to be too tightly constrained.”

[Source]: Fresno Bee