California Governor Gavin Newsom recently proposed a two-hundred billion dollar budget plan, which is titled as “California for All.” In his proposal, he revealed forty million dollars of the annual budget would be spent on supporting a second year of free tuition for community college students.
Newsom’s proposal, which is under the name “Assembly Bill 2,” would extend the California College Promise, which waives the first year of tuition for community college students.
The governor hopes that the funding will help students transfer to the four-year university of their choice in a quicker amount of time. Nearly 60,000 students transferred from community college to a California State University in the last year, as reported by the California State University system.
The University of California system reported that approximately 26,000 community college students transferred to one of their schools, according to their recent Fall Transfer Admissions Summary.
While the transfer rates have increased in years, it is still unknown if Assembly Bill 2 will help further this increase.
“It is a little unclear right now because a lot of students already receive the California Promise, even those in the upper income who transfer,” EdSource senior correspondent Larry Gordon said. “It is too early to tell whether or not student transfer rates will dramatically increase under Newsom’s plan.”
The California College Promise was first signed into law by former Governor Jerry Brown, under “Assembly Bill 19. ”
Nearly half of over two million students enrolled in community college currently receive the College Promise grant, according to the San Jose Mercury News.
In the governor’s budget summary, the California state government also projects to have approximately about 28,000 first-year, full-time students eligible for the second year of free tuition. At the moment, an average community college student pays $46 per unit, depending on the number of units they take, according to California education analysis website Edsource.
Newsom’s recent budget proposal left California Community College Chancellor’s Office Financial Aid Specialist Bryan Dickason hopeful for the future of community colleges.
“My first impression was that the governor was going to continue to promise,” Dickason said. “He hopes to deliver on that promise with the implementation of that second year of community college.”
Newsom wants to ensure that California community college students get the necessary education they need with proper support. The state Legislature still needs to approve Assembly Bill 2 before Newsom can take action on his promises.