More than 50 years ago, California’s revered Master Plan for Higher Education established public community colleges as a means to educate the state’s lower-division students and prepare them for transfer to a higher institution.

Today, the sprawling system of 112 colleges and more than 2.1 million students transfers only about 40 percent of those seeking to continue on to a university where they can finish a bachelor’s degree, according to the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office.