Chapter 491: University of California

"Principal Woolsey, I think you have learned about the situation in California through your inspections over the past few days."

After Woolsey had conducted a week-long inspection of major cities in California, Liang Yao and California Department of Education Minister Pearman received Woolsey.

"Speaker Liang, Minister Pearman, the situation in California is much better than I expected." Woolsey shook hands with Liang Yao and Pearman politely.

"Although California's higher education is relatively weak, California's primary and secondary education are well popularized. California is one of the states with the best basic education I have ever seen."

This is not Woolsey flattering Liang Yao. In terms of public education, California has indeed been at the forefront of the times. Even if it cannot be ranked first in the United States, it is more than enough to be ranked in the first echelon.

In the mid-19th century, the American education system was relatively decentralized and fragmented, lacking unified planning and coordination across the country.

The American education system is mainly managed by state governments, not by the federal government. Each state is responsible for formulating and implementing its own education policies and laws.

The federal government also has no relevant federal agencies to lead and supervise education affairs across the country.

The education in the United States is basically that each state formulates its own education policies and laws suitable for the state's conditions.

At present, except for California and Ohio, the remaining states have not yet established a special education department to manage the education work in their states.

However, they have education committees or similar institutions to manage and supervise education. These committees are usually appointed or elected by the state government and are composed of education experts and citizen representatives.

During this period, the education system in the United States developed slowly and unevenly, and there were also great differences in education levels and resource allocation.

Some states adopted more advanced education policies and systems, such as Connecticut. It was a state in the United States that did a very good job in education during this period.

After the American War of Independence, Connecticut began to establish a public school system to ensure that all citizens in the state could receive basic education.

Connecticut is also the first state in the United States to adopt a compulsory education law, which requires all children to receive education and education must be free.

But the education systems in other states are relatively backward, such as in the southern states and the border states that were established later and had backward economies.

Woolsey once served as the chairman of the Connecticut State Board of Education. He has a positive attitude towards public education. He believes that the government should use public resources to provide a bottom line for basic education and protect the right of the poor to receive education.

The reason why Liang Yao invited Yale University in Connecticut to cooperate in running schools in California is that Liang Yao and Yale University have had successful cooperation examples in the international student program.

The fit between Liang Yao and Woolsey in certain educational concepts is also an important reason.

Of course, the most fundamental reason is that Connecticut's educational strength is very strong.

Whether it is basic education or higher education, private education or public education, Connecticut during this period was the best among the states in the United States.

However, being the best does not mean that Connecticut's educational strength is the strongest in the United States. The state with the strongest education in the United States during this period was Massachusetts, which is also known as Massachusetts. The famous Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology both originated from this state.

"The quality of immigrants is low. If we want to improve the quality of immigrants, we can only start with school-age children." Liang Yao said.

"Children are the future of California."

California has literacy classes and other similar organizations that provide literacy services for adult illiterates, but the role of these organizations is limited to teaching you to recognize words. They cannot cultivate high-quality professionals.

California's professionals are mainly introduced from other states or even abroad through talent introduction programs.

If California wants to cultivate professional and high-quality talents on its own, in addition to doing a good job in basic education, it must establish a complete system that runs through primary education to higher education.

And higher education is exactly California's shortcoming.

Since there are not enough high-quality colleges and universities in the state, the Ministry of Education has to send those students with excellent grades to Massachusetts and Connecticut, states with strong colleges and universities.

"I agree." Woolsey nodded, and he continued, "I heard that you have set aside a piece of land in the Berkeley area for the construction of a university. Can we visit it?"

"Of course, please follow me." Liang Yao asked Carnegie to prepare a small steamer.

After the small steamer arrived, the group boarded the small steamer and headed for Berkeley.

In 1855, the population of San Francisco exceeded 300,000, accounting for almost one-third of the state's population.

Due to the rapid urbanization process in California, the old town of San Francisco has become overcrowded.

The population of San Francisco has already tended to spread to the coastal areas of San Francisco Bay. As of now, San Francisco Bay has formed three large districts: Liang Yao District (San Jose), Fremont District, and Oakland District.

However, due to the lack of special policy support, Berkeley in the north of Oakland has limited appeal to immigrants, so the development of Berkeley is relatively lagging behind.

Berkeley has a population of only more than 10,000, which is considered to be a relatively small population among the many emerging urban areas in San Francisco Bay.

But a small population also has its advantages, and that is quietness.

Besides, Berkeley is also very close to the main city of San Francisco, with a special flight route. The Berkeley area has beautiful scenery, so it is more appropriate to develop it into a university town.

Before the launch of the cooperation project with Yale University, four colleges and universities had already settled in the Berkeley University Town.

One is the California Normal School, which was founded after the integration of the church school. The school mainly trains teachers for primary and secondary schools across California. The other three schools are the Jinshan Business School established by Liang Yao to train managers for the American Group, the California Railway Institute, which supplies railway talents for the California Railway Company, and the Pratt & Whitney Mechanical School established by Pratt & Whitney.

It is said that Coney is also planning to set up an engineering school.

"Is this empty university California Chemical?"

After riding a horse around the university town, Woolsey stopped in front of a university. The building of this university is the best among all universities, and it seems to have the largest area, but this university is empty. There are neither students nor teachers, only sporadic security personnel and construction workers.

Woolsey couldn't control his curiosity and asked.

Although California's higher education started late and is weak, it has also cultivated the state's trump card majors, such as the Chinese studies major at California Normal University and the chemical engineering major at California Chemical Engineering.

The chemical engineering major at California Institute of Chemical Engineering is unique in the industry. In the field of petroleum-related chemical engineering, the academic and scientific research level of the institute is unique in the world.

After all, California is the only country in the world that has its own complete chemical industry chain.

"California Chemical Engineering is in Los Angeles." Liang Yao explained.

"This is the future University of California. If your school can reach a cooperation with us, this is the campus. The student apartments and professors' villas have been built. If you are willing to stay here to teach, you will be given a villa for free."

The California Institute of Chemical Engineering is located in Los Angeles, where the chemical industry is well developed. This school is a higher education school that the Ministry of Education focuses on. The current president of the California Institute of Chemical Engineering is Nobel's father, Nobel.

This school was specially prepared by California to open the University of California. In order to build this university, California has invested more than 700,000 US dollars.

When they heard about the villa, the accompanying Yale University professor team couldn't help but brighten their eyes.

California has promised that if they are willing to teach in California, California is willing to provide them with three times the salary they received at Yale University, and the research funds needed for scientific research will also be provided by California.

The California government can also connect them with relevant companies to ensure that their research results can be put into application fields as soon as possible.

These conditions are already very attractive, and now they are also giving away houses directly. This makes many accompanying professors eager to move.

Before coming to California, many Yale professors just wanted to take a look first and did not decide to stay in California to teach.

The generous conditions proposed by California have moved many Yale professors at this time.

They asked Liang Yao to take them inside to have a look. They wanted to see the living environment and conditions provided by the University of California for professors.

Liang Yao readily agreed and took them around the villa area on campus.

These villas were built by Coney's construction company. The construction standards are consistent with California commercial villas. Except for the tacky and rustic design, there are no quality problems.

Berkeley is a beautiful place with clear water and green mountains. Here you can see the rolling and misty mountains in the distance, which is refreshing.

In front of the villa, there is a clear stream flowing, and the green water reflects the lush woods around it, which is beautiful.

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These villas consist of spacious living rooms, comfortable bedrooms and luxurious bathrooms, and each room is decorated extremely exquisitely.

There is a soft sofa and a gorgeous marble coffee table in the living room. Not only can you relax with a drink here, but you can also enjoy the beautiful scenery outside the window.

The backyard of the villa is a green lawn with a fresh and fragrant smell. There are also various flowers and fruit trees planted around it, which are not only beautiful but also fragrant.

Here, you can enjoy a sense of tranquility and peace, away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

"It's good here, but it's too remote and the transportation is a bit inconvenient." A professor complained.

"The railway from UC to Oakland is already being laid. This railway will use the most advanced locomotive of California Railway Company, Pioneer 2. It will take less than an hour to get from UC to Oakland." Liang Yao said with a smile.

"In addition, the Pacific Railway will be completed next year. By then, you can board the train directly at UC and go to any place in the east. There is also a special telegraph room on the UC campus for you to use free of charge. Although California is remote, it will not affect your academic exchanges."

"Chairman Liang is really thoughtful." After hearing what Liang Yao said, the complaining professor no longer had any worries.