A bill in the California Senate that would have created an Office of Higher Education Performance and Accountability (OHEPA) was vetoed by Governor Jerry Brown last week.

The agency would have advised ” the governor and legislature on goals for higher education, and an advisory board to review the performance of this office.”

In response, Brown vetoed the legislation due to the potential bureaucracy of the agency.

“While there is much work to be done to improve higher education, I am not convinced we need a new office and an advisory board, especially of the kind this bill proposes, to get the job done.”

Using conjecture, it seems that this type of group would have served the purpose of lending itself to become a resume builder for those selected to sit on the board. The previous board, the California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC) was around for 40 years and served in almost the same capacity. But it lost its funding in 2011, and OHEPA would have been its replacement.

While some of the gains that may have come with the new agency would have been great, like new data to monitor the effectiveness of the state’s higher education system, it wasn’t enough to convince the governor and the state’s education leaders that it was needed.