and statehood status was sought to start trying to remedy this problem. Due to the California Gold Rush, by 1850 California had grown to have a non-Indian and non-Californio population (about 7,000 Californios were residing in California in 1850) of over 110,000. Despite a major conflict in the U.S. Congress on the number of slave versus non-slave states, the large, rapid and continuing California population gains and the large amount of gold being exported east gave California enough clout to choose its own extensive boundaries, elect its representatives and senators, write its Constitution, and be admitted to the Union as a free state in 1850 without going through territorial status as required for most other new states. Soon after gaining statehood in 1850, the state required and paid through taxes for nearly universal elementary school education. Other private schools were founded and are still doing well. In the 1930s California was a leader in the high school movement to educate students beyond elementary school. State-subsidized college educations have a long history in California as well as many private elementary, middle, high schools, colleges and universities. There are three public funded higher education systems in the state: the California State University (CSU) (founded 1857), the University of California (UC) system (founded 1868), and the California Community College System (CCCS) founded in 1967. CSU is the largest university system in the United States. CSU has 23 campuses and eight off-campus centers enrolling 437,000 students with 44,000 faculty members and staff, The University of California was founded in 1868 in Berkeley as a state supported university. As of fall 2011, the University of California has 10 campuses, a combined student body of 234,464 students, 18,896 faculty members, 189,116 staff members, and over 1,600,000 living alumni. The California Community College System consisting of 112 community colleges in 72 community college districts in California has over 1,800,000 students. California also has an extensive private college system of over 133 colleges and universities including California Institute of Technology and Stanford University. (See: List of colleges and universities in California) About half the settlers coming to California after 1846 came by the wagon trains on the California Trail (a trip of about 140–160 days). The other half came by sea via paddle steamers going to and from the Isthmus of Panama or Nicaragua (about a 40+ day trip). The building of the Panama Railroad in 1855 made