A modest Proposal: let the flagships go

So here's an idea for addressing the 20% budget cut the State is imposing on the University of California: cut the flagship campuses, Berkeley and UCLA, loose. Let them go, free to finance themselves through endowments, alumni donations, and tuition. And redistribute the money thus saved to other campuses.

UCLA and UCB are the only campuses with the history and the connections to build an endowment: let them run themselves like private Universities (at Berkeley they already think they are Ivy League anyways). People can now get a world-class education at either of these campuses, for comparatively very little money (but for how much longer?). Set them free, and put the full weight of the state's support for the land-grant nature of UC begind the remaining campuses.