The Vasconcellos Project is raising public awareness that an update for California's Master Plan for Higher Education is long overdue and an effort to adapt it for the 21st century, should be undertaken by the California legislature. We are currently reaching out for community input, as we strive to ensure that California's world-model higher education system will be able to provide the coming generation of students with the quality and breadth of educational experiences they will need to fully develop their talents and prosper in our global society.

While we must work to prepare our institutions of higher learning for the coming generation of students, it has also recently become clear that many students face a quadruple gap on the road toward higher education. English language acquisition, the persisting elementary academic achievement gap, disproportionate high school dropout rates, and a significant digital divide provide significant challenges for the people and state of California. In addition to modernizing of our institutions of higher education, the future well-being of the people and economy of California is going to depend largely upon our solving the complementary challenge of ensuring that all segments of our student population are prepared to access and succeed at those institutions of higher learning. California has experienced significant demographic shifts in the last twenty five years.

Between 1980 and 2005, Latino student enrollment increased by 187% in California public schools, and demographers predict that Latino students will soon make up a majority of California's public school population. Unfortunately, a significant achievement gap remains and reports indicate that fewer than 60% of Latino males currently complete high school. We cannot afford to continue in our failure to sufficiently educate a quarter of our future work force.

We cite these figures and challenges because we believe we must fully and honestly recognize and own up to the realities we are experiencing, in order to mobilize ourselves and our resources in an effort to engage an increasingly diverse group of stakeholders. If we are to create positive change in our communities, there can be no cross-section of our young people that can any longer be "those kids" somewhere across town, they are our future and their academic success must become a shared priority.

Whether we are employers yearning for a competent and competitive labor market, or retirees looking for a viable workforce to provide stability in our senior years, or parents wanting our children to become educated and reach their full potential, we are all in this together. Each of us must ensure opportunities for the full educational development of each and every child, if we are to both; sustain a competitive workforce in this age of technology in our global economy, and to realize the promise of our multicultural and gender-equal democracy.

It is our belief that even as updating our California Master Plan for Higher Education is essential at a statewide level, this quadruple challenge facing many of our students, cannot be solved there. It will require local and regional collaboration, with only basic guidelines from the state.