Editing California State University (section)

=== State Teachers Colleges ===
[[File:The American system of agricultural education (1904) (17973269710) (cropped).jpg|thumb|The [[California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo#History|California Polytechnic School]], established in 1901, eventually became today's [[California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo]].]]
In May 1921, the legislature enacted a comprehensive reform package for the state's educational system, which went into effect that July.<ref name="Gerth5">{{cite book|last1=Gerth|first1=Donald R.|title=The People's University: A History of the California State University|date=2010|publisher=Berkeley Public Policy Press|location=Berkeley|isbn=978-0-87772-435-3|pages=31–32}}</ref> The State Normal Schools were renamed State Teachers Colleges, their boards of trustees were dissolved, and they were brought under the supervision of the Division of Normal and Special Schools of the new [[California Department of Education]] located at the state capital in [[Sacramento, California|Sacramento]].<ref name="Gerth5" /> This meant that they were to be managed from Sacramento by the deputy director of the division, who in turn was subordinate to the [[California State Superintendent of Public Instruction|State Superintendent of Public Instruction]] (the ''ex officio'' director of the Department of Education) and the [[California State Board of Education|State Board of Education]]. By this time it was already commonplace to refer to most of the campuses with their city names plus the word "state" (e.g., "San Jose State," "San Diego State," "San Francisco State").
[[File:StateNormalSchool1915 (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|San Diego [[California State Normal School|State Normal School]], founded 1897, became [[History of San Diego State University|San Diego State Teacher's College]] in 1923 (and eventually [[San Diego State University]]).]]
The resulting administrative situation from 1921 to 1960 was quite complicated. On the one hand, the Department of Education's actual supervision of the presidents of the State Teachers Colleges was minimal, which translated into substantial autonomy when it came to day-to-day operations.<ref name="Gerth6">{{cite book|last1=Gerth|first1=Donald R.|title=The People's University: A History of the California State University|date=2010|publisher=Berkeley Public Policy Press|location=Berkeley|isbn=978-0-87772-435-3|page=xxi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v4J-QwAACAAJ&q=leonard+finance}}</ref> According to [[Clark Kerr]], [[J. Paul Leonard]], the president of San Francisco State from 1945 to 1957, once boasted that "he had the best college presidency in the United States—no organized faculty, no organized student body, no organized alumni association, and...no board of trustees."<ref name="ClarkKerr1">{{cite book|last1=Kerr|first1=Clark|title=The Gold and the Blue: A Personal Memoir of the University of California, 1949–1967, Volume 1|date=2001|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley|isbn=978-0-520-22367-7|pages=176–177|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jMEZ_47vXkAC&pg=PA176}}</ref> On the other hand, the State Teachers Colleges were treated under state law as ordinary [[Government of California|state government]] agencies, which meant their budgets were subject to the same stifling bureaucratic financial controls as all other state agencies (except the University of California).<ref name="Gerth6" /> At least one president would depart his state college because of his express frustration over that issue: Leonard himself.<ref name="Gerth6" /> (One of the lasting legacies of this era is that Cal State employees, like other state employees (but not UC or local government employees) are still paid by the [[California State Controller|state controller]] and receive their [[Employee benefits|employment]] and [[Pension|retirement benefits]] from [[CalPERS]].)

During the 1920s and 1930s, the State Teachers Colleges started to evolve from normal ''schools'' (that is, [[Vocational education in the United States|vocational schools]] narrowly focused on training [[Elementary school (United States)|elementary school]] teachers in how to impart basic [[literacy]] to young children) into teachers ''colleges'' (that is, providing a full [[liberal arts education]]) whose graduates would be fully qualified to teach all [[K–12]] grades.<ref name="Gerth7">{{cite book|last1=Gerth|first1=Donald R.|title=The People's University: A History of the California State University|date=2010|publisher=Berkeley Public Policy Press|location=Berkeley|isbn=978-0-87772-435-3|pages=23–24, 33–35|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v4J-QwAACAAJ&q=liberal%20arts%20mclane}}</ref> A leading proponent of this idea was Charles McLane, the first president of Fresno State, who was one of the earliest persons to argue that K–12 teachers must have a broad liberal arts education.<ref name="Gerth7" />  Having already founded Fresno Junior College in 1907 (now [[Fresno City College]]), McLane arranged for Fresno State to co-locate with the junior college and to synchronize schedules so teachers-in-training could take liberal arts courses at the junior college.<ref name="Gerth7" />  San Diego and San Jose followed Fresno in expanding their academic programs beyond traditional teacher training.<ref name="Douglass_Page_139">{{cite book |last1=Douglass |first1=John Aubrey |title=The California Idea and American Higher Education: 1850 to the 1960 Master Plan |date=2000 |publisher=Stanford University Press |location=Stanford |isbn=978-0-8047-3189-8 |page=139}}</ref> These developments had the "tacit approval" of the State Board of Education and the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, but had not been expressly authorized by the board and also lacked express statutory authorization from the state legislature.<ref name="Douglass_Page_139" />