CSU Chancellor Charles Reed’s Executive Order 1048 stipulates that the 23 campus presidents must mandate a special summer program as a matriculation requirement for freshmen who need developmental math or English courses. The cost for this will be borne by the student, now classified as an "Early Entrant." Failure to participate in a summer program will result in disenrollment from the CSU, even though the student is CSU eligible and was accepted for the fall term.

Under the order, every CSU president must have a campus plan developed for approval by November 19, 2010. Mandatory Early Start, which has been adopted by the CSU Trustees, is a system-wide approach to implementing the chancellor’s order.

Mandatory Early Start would require students who are accepted to the CSU but who need remedial study to attend a mandatory summer program. The policy is not spelled out entirely; it is not clear if it will operate in place of or in addition to the ongoing help students currently receive during their first year at a CSU.

Among incoming CSU freshmen who are eligible to attend a state university because of their high school class standing, testing reveals over 50% need some help to get up to college speed in math and/or English.

Long-existing CSU remediation/developmental programs succeed in getting about 85% of such students to college level within one year.

Educators across the nation hail the current CSU programs as a success story that has helped tens of thousands of students with great potential from low-performing high schools or “non-traditional” college-student backgrounds to rise into middle-class jobs and lives.

These successful programs should not be abandoned for a risky experiment like Mandatory Early Start, which would be an obstacle to a college education for many, especially our most economically disadvantaged students.