The time we tried free college for all? Andrew Stone Higgins on the California Master Plan

In 1960, California experimented with tuition-free college for all public campuses in the state. As Andrew Higgins explains in Higher Education for All (UNC Press, 2023), the California Master Plan actually worked to make higher education more unequal for students. As calls for free college have gained traction in the 20th century, Higgins reminds us of critical shortcomings of the Cold War California experiment.

• Andrew Stone Higgins. 2023. Higher Education for All: Racial Inequality, Cold War Liberalism, and the California Master Plan. University of North Carolina Press. https://uncpress.org/book/9781469672915/higher-education-for-all/ 
• Ursula K. Le Guin. 1974. The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia. Harper & Row. https://www.ursulakleguin.com/dispossessed 
• Eran A. Zelnik. 2025. American Laughter, American Fury: Humor and the Making of a White Man's Democracy, 1750–1850. Johns Hopkins University Press. https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/53720/american-laughter-american-fury?srsltid=AfmBOorXZsXFbZytjeYwjAM76_AurQV2wJfziy6RCFvSEmzBnJc0Er6z 
• “1964: Mario Savio’s “Bodies Upon The Gears” speech at a UC Berkeley student protest.” YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLc_JZk_BLs