Fifty years ago, visionary leaders created California’s Master Plan for Higher Education. For decades, the master plan provided millions of Californians with opportunities to pursue their academic ambitions and improve their vocational skills.

Now, however, our higher education system is reeling. The visionaries are gone and our community colleges and public universities are bruised by cuts, furloughs and ever-increasing fee hikes that threaten affordability and access for students across California.

Stories about this decline can be found on campus after campus. A University of California, San Diego professor worries about students’ inability to get into the classes they need for graduation. California State University, Sacramento officials consider turning away qualified students because more people want to enroll than the university has funding to handle. A CSU student concludes the system is creating a generation of student debtors.

A report this month by the Public Policy Institute of California found that the state is confronting two main crises in higher education: Budget cutbacks and an education skills gap. By 2025, the state will have a shortage of one million college educated workers relative to demand unless we substantially increase rates of college enrollment and graduation.

Yet with all this daunting news, we spend more on prisons than we do on all three higher education systems combined.

There’s a better way. Tens of thousands of Californians have marched on college campuses and city streets to save higher education. My bill, AB 656””the Fair Share for Fair Tuition bill””will generate almost $2 billion a year for our community colleges and public universities. It would levy a 12.5 percent extraction fee on oil companies. California is currently the only major oil producing state that does not impose an extraction fee on oil companies. Even former Governors Sarah Palin of Alaska and George W. Bush of Texas both levied oil fees and used them to help fund higher education in their states. Now is the time for California to join the rest of the nation.

Alberto Torrico is the Chair of the Select Committee on Prison Reform and Rehabilitation as well as candidate for California Attorney General. For additional information, visit: www.AlbertoTorrico.com.