Issue Briefs: Student Fees

California's Historical Commitment to Free or Affordable Public Education

Californians have long demonstrated the belief that a democratic society and thriving economy are founded in a strong system of public education. By 1879 the legislature had enacted a compulsory school attendance law for youth, founded a “normal school” to train teachers, and established the University of California as an autonomous institution of higher learning and a public trust. Affordable (or free) public education, offered at all levels from kindergarten through university has long distinguished this state. California’s founders believed that the benefits of education are offered not to the individual alone but to the public as a whole, and that the most practical way to ensure delivery of these benefits is for the state itself to provide education for all qualified to profit from it at public expense.