Opinion: Exactly what California needs: A new, science-focused UC school

Editorial Note: This opinion piece was originally published in the LA Times.

Thousands of applicants with high school grade-point averages above 4.0 are rejected from UC Berkeley and UCLA each year through no fault of their own. It's a hard thing for parents to explain to their kids, who did everything they were supposed to do and yet were turned away thanks to the lack of space in California's top public universities. Many students end up paying more to attend comparably ranked private or out-of-state schools. This exodus of motivated, intelligent students -- many of whom settle out of state -- isn't good for California in the long run.

Schools like UCLA provide an elite education, but students there encounter a system at maximum capacity. The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Westwood is just shy of $2,500 a month. Many classes are held in vast lecture halls with little interaction with the professor. Even a top-notch university like UCLA can't bring upward of 43,000 humans through its doors without certain systemic challenges.

Meanwhile, in politics, a divisive debate about affirmative action rages on, with students of all colors believing that qualified members of their group are not getting into our flagship state universities.

Despite these facts, The Times' Karin Klein wrote an Opinion L.A. blog post on March 4 that disagreed sharply with my capacity-increasing proposal, Assembly Bill 1483, to build a new University of California campus focusing on the STEAM subjects (science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics). Not only would operating a new campus be cost prohibitive, Klein wrote, but the shortage of graduates in science, engineering and math may be a myth foisted on the public by CEOs who just "want to train people in these fields." She suggested I have too much time on my hands.

Despite these facts, The Times' Karin Klein wrote an Opinion L.A. blog post on March 4 that disagreed sharply with my capacity-increasing proposal, Assembly Bill 1483, to build a new University of California campus focusing on the STEAM subjects (science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics). Not only would operating a new campus be cost prohibitive, Klein wrote, but the shortage of graduates in science, engineering and math may be a myth foisted on the public by CEOs who just "want to train people in these fields." She suggested I have too much time on my hands.

Moreover, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, using 2012 as a baseline, the U.S. will need 27% more biomedical engineers, 37% more information-security analysts and 39% more cardiovascular technicians and other medical sonographers by 2022

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