Three years ago, Gov. Jerry Brown launched a four-year program of gradually increased budgets for the University of California and the California State University systems, contingent on keeping student fees flat. 

Sounds pretty good, right?

The problem is, such small increases in the state’s share of funding, combined with tuition freezes, means funding for higher education is actually lower than the rate of inflation.

Rather than a guaranteed slow rate of funding growth, this is instead a guaranteed slow bleeding to death of California’s public higher education systems. 

Plus, starting the Multi-Year Stable Funding Plan at the depths of the Great Recession meant starting when the schools were already terribly wounded.