Bill Leonard, on CA’s Board of Equalization writes:
The Governor is proposing to sell off two California government departments because they are really businesses. That is, they make money on their own, and whatever services they perform the public can choose whether to use them. Both the Ed-Fund, which is a bank making loans to college students, and the State Lottery, which is a government run casino, are the kind of entities government should not be running I propose another that meets these same standards and should thus be privatized: the University of California. UC is also a business that competes with the private sector (USC, Stanford) and it makes tons of money with its high tuition charges and patents on its inventions, as well as Federal contracts (like Halliburton and Blackwater). Certainly with a mandate to only admit the top 12% of the high school class it does not serve even a majority of Californians. Given the recent headlines of corruption, mismanagement, lack of oversight and violations of academic freedom, UC really should be reconstituted away from state government. As a charitable educational institution it would then be subject to Franchise Tax Board audits just like the private college and universities are now. We could save millions of taxpayer dollars by this privatization and if someone really wanted to buy the headache, we the people might be able to break even.