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With a population of 33,871,648 as of 2000, California is the most populous state in the U.S., and contributes 12% to the total U.S. population.
According to the census, California lacks a majority ethnic group. Euro Americans are still the largest group, but are no longer a majority of the population. Hispanics make up almost one-third of the population; in order, other groups are Asian Americans, African Americans, and Native Americans. Because of high levels of immigration from Mexico and higher birth rates among the Hispanic population, Hispanics are predicted to become a majority around 2040.
The state of California has many cities and the majority of these cities are within one of nine total major metropolitan areas. The four largest are coastal being Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, and San Francisco. The other five are inland and consist of the Inland Empire (Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario), Sacramento, Fresno, Bakersfield, and the Antelope Valley (Palmdale-Lancaster).
California's educational system is supported by a unique constitutional amendment that requires 40% of state revenues to be spent on education.
The preeminent state university is the 9-campus University of California, which employs more Nobel Prize winners than any other institution in the world. The eight general campuses are in Berkeley, Los Angeles, Davis, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, Irvine, Riverside, and San Diego. A ninth campus, in San Francisco, teaches only health-sciences students. A tenth campus, in Merced, is scheduled to open in 2005.[1] The UC system is intended to accept students from the top 12.5% of college-bound students, and provide most graduate studies and research. The University of California also administers federal laboratories for the Federal Department of Energy: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The California State University system provides education for teachers, the trades, agriculture and industry. With over 400,000 students, the CSU system is the largest university system in the United States. It is intended to accept most college-bound high-school students, while carrying out some research, especially in applied sciences. Lower-division course credits are frequently transferable to the University of California.
The California community college system provides vocational education, remedial education, and continuing education programs. It awards certificates and associate degrees. It also provides lower division general-education courses, whose credit units are transferable to the CSU and UC systems. It is composed of 109 colleges organized into 72 districts. The system serves a student population of over 2.9 million.
Preeminent private institutions include Stanford University, the University of Southern California (USC), and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) (which administers the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA).
California has hundreds of private colleges and universities, including many religious and special-purpose institutions. This leads to many unique entertainment and educational opportunities for residents. For example, Southern California, with one of the highest densities of post-secondary institutions in the world, has a very large base of classically trained vocalists that compete in large choir festivals. Near Los Angeles, there are numerous art and film institutes, including the prestigious Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the CalArts Institute.
Secondary education consists of high schools that teach elective courses in trades, languages and liberal arts with tracks for gifted, college-bound and industrial arts students. They accept students from roughly age 14 to 18, with mandatory education ceasing at age 16. In many districts, junior high schools teach electives with a strong skills-based curriculum, for ages from 11 to 13. Elementary schools teach pure skills, history and social studies, with optional half-day kindergartens beginning at age 5. Mandatory full-time instruction begins at age 6.
The primary schools are of varying effectiveness. The quality of the local schools depends strongly on the local tax base, and the size of the local administration. In some regions, administrative costs divert a significant amount of educational monies from instructional purposes. In poor regions, literacy rates may fall below 70%. One thing they all have in common is a state mandate to teach fourth grade students about the history of California, including the role of the early missions; most schools implement this by requiring students complete a multiple medium project.
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