College enrollment decline leads to funding changes for underperforming Cal State schools
Mikhail Zinshteyn
January 26, 2023
IN SUMMARY
Cal State leaders revealed a new plan that will take money from campuses missing enrollment targets and give it to schools exceeding their targets.
The California State University system is putting campuses on notice: Enroll more students or lose money.
It’s a stunning reversal of fortune for the 23 campuses of the country’s largest public university system, which have collectively lost 27,000 students in two years — part of a national wave of declining college enrollment.
In fall 2020, Cal State posted its highest-ever enrollment, a capstone to almost ceaseless growth in its six decades as a unified system. Now, it’s home to 25,000 fewer students than the state says it should educate.
