EDITORIAL MAKING THE GRADE MASTER PLAN FOR HIGHER EDUCATION NEEDS UPDATE TO MIRROR NEW REALITY Master Plan for Higher Education needs update to mirror new reality.

CALIFORNIA'S system of higher education is one of the nation's great public policy successes. It's produced millions of well-prepared graduates, lifting many of them into the middle class while fueling a booming state economy.

It wasn't by accident. In 1960, the Legislature passed the Master Plan for Higher Education, setting priorities for the University of California, California State University and community college systems. As the 50th anniversary of that prescient document approaches, plans for a long-overdue revision are taking shape in the Legislature.

Without a new strategy for operating our public colleges and universities, the economic future of our state will be in peril. And financing this new strategy needs to be a major part of the discussion. If the state wants to maintain the historic promise of the master plan, taxpayers, students or both will have to pay more. And if more of the burden is to fall on students, then the ability of the system to lift low-income Californians toward financial success will be far more limited.

There are signs everywhere that the state's pillars of higher education - access, affordability and quality - are crumbling. The budget crisis that sparked last week's UC protests has forced hundreds of millions in cuts, with students bearing the burden through fees that went up by more than 30 percent.

At CSU, for the first time, students now pay more than the state. That's astounding in light of the master plan's promise of a tuition-free education for anyone who qualified.

There are fewer classes this fall at California State University, Northridge, and UCLA and the Valley's community colleges, making it more difficult and more expensive for students to complete their degrees at a time when unemployment makes returning to school a good option for many. With bigger classes, faculty furloughs and hiring freezes, the quality of instruction is also in question.

History shows this may be devastating for not only individuals but the economy.

During the recession of the early 1990s, when fees shot up, CSU enrollment declined by 50,000, and it took the rest of the decade to recover. Even before this budget crisis, the Public Policy Institute of California predicted that by 2025, California would fall 1 million graduates short of expected needs. That gap will be more evident in science and technology, which will be especially damaging for California's knowledge-based economy.

State Rep. Ira Ruskin, D-Los Altos, seized the opportunity of the upcoming anniversary to propose a joint legislative committee to rewrite the master plan. The Assembly and Senate agreed. Legislative leaders must move quickly to appoint members so the committee can get to work.

The update must begin with a robust public discussion about the future of public higher education - including what's at stake if the world's finest system continues to deteriorate. Maintaining quality, access and affordability at CSU, UC and the community colleges will be expensive, but letting these institutions falter will be far more costly to California's economy and its people.