In a perfect world, transferring to a university would be based solely on an applicant’s grades and achievements, regardless of where a person lives.

Obviously, we do not live in a perfect world, or a perfect state for that matter.

Instead, we live in a state where it’s OK to teach people from birth that getting a higher education will guarantee a good job, house and a family, then as they apply what has been imbedded in them, they get local university doors slammed in their faces because they live in Compton or Harbor City.

We live in a state where a local high school student with a 2.0 GPA gets higher priority admission to a state university instead of a transferring community college student with a 4.0 GPA who lives 15 miles farther down the road.

Due to the state’s current budget problems, certain California State Universities have made the admissions process even harder for transferring students by allowing local high school students higher priority registration compared to transferring students in neighboring cities.

As a result, since 2007, EC’s admittance rate to California State University, Long Beach has dwindled from 64 percent to 26 percent, according to statistics from EC Institutional Research.

So where do EC students go from here?

Private universities aren’t a realistic option because they are  expensive and simply not in the budget for the typical  community college student.

The other public option is a UC, also very expensive.

That brings us to our local CSU: CSU, Dominguez Hills. Though CSUDH is the designated university for local registration, they must accommodate all community colleges in the area, whereas CSULB only has to accommodate two; Orange Coast College and Long Beach City College.

When this news gets out, if it hasn’t already, EC’s admission rate will drop because high school students in the area looking to transfer to a local CSU won’t want to apply here.

If none of the previously mentioned options work for you, then you’re left with going out of state.

The state needs to stop making cuts that benefit bureaucratic agendas that disrupts one’s education.

How is it fair that Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, which is roughly 10 miles farther than EC, has priority registration to CSULB over Torrance, Compton and Harbor City.

What the state needs to do is create campus regions which will consist of a 10-or 20-mile radius around each university. Any and all community colleges within that area will be allowed priority registration to that local CSU. Genius, right? And fair.

It’s amazing what one can devise with a little education.