Honoring the Legacy of Chancellor Kerr

Your coverage of Clark Kerr’s legacy as chancellor of UC Berkeley and president of the University of California system offered an important history lesson for citizens (obituary, Dec. 2). The Master Plan for Higher Education (1960) is truly the jewel in the crown of California. As a community college professor of history who for 33 years has been sending his best transfer students to the UC schools, I can attest to the affordable, world-class education that our many disadvantaged students have received. Also, as the parents of two UC students, my wife and I feel a debt of gratitude to the genius of Kerr, who kept a high-quality education within the budgetary reach of educator-parents of middle-class means.

We must continue to fund, at the highest levels, the three-tiered system of higher education bequeathed to us by Kerr and emulated to varying degrees throughout the world. In tough times like the present, we truly test our commitment to the California dream of access and excellence in higher education.

Tom Osborne

Professor of History

Santa Ana College