What UC insiders are deaf to understand is the feeling of betrayal held by California parents and taxpayers who have paid all their lives to support an institution intended to to support California research and educate top-performing California students. The runaway UC cost structure has to be brought under control, but the UC President is powerless to make this happen. In the name of “academic freedom”, UC has become answerable to nobody and it is little wonder that the Legislature has no appetite for increased funding. What UC needs is less funding and less independence, but this can only be achieved by Constitutional reform of its charter. The voters would approve this in a heartbeat.

As a conservative California parent, I long ago learned not to bet against Governor Brown. When Brown and Newsom together say “too much”, we should take notice. The focus on Napolitano is misplaced. She is merely a sad figurehead in a runaway educational bureaucracy that has outgrown its usefulness and lost its direction.

Until UC is brought under control, it will simply continue to demand more tuition, admit more out-of-state and foreign students who pay FULL PRICE, and further alienate ordinary Californians.