How California Students Are Leading the Fight for Tuition-Free Community College

By Maxwell Lubin, Founder of Rise California


California is residence to over 2 million community college students — more than the whole populations of Vermont, Wyoming, and Washington, D.C. Combined. Although the rising cost of higher education — which has increased over 1,100 percent nationwide since the late 1970s — has left tens of thousands of California students famished and homeless, and discouraged students from pursuing college at all.


Although a new proposal from California legislators and Governor Gavin Newsom, the California College Promise bill, would be a gamechanger for students by providing two years of free tuition to full-time students. The idea from state lawmakers is a big deal. If enacted into law, California would follow states like Tennessee and Rhode Island that have launched statewide free community college programs.


Nevertheless free tuition would not address every cost of attending college, the program would go a long way towards helping more students enroll and earn essential federal and state financial aid. It would also help stop the exponential rise in tuition and fees. California’s community colleges were tuition-free up until the mid-1980s, yet today it expenses about $1,200 to enroll full-time furthermore to the price of books, housing, and more. The total bills of attending college is a big reason why student cash advance debt has blown up, totaling more than $1.5 trillion nationwide.


Public colleges and universities were nearly free for our parents’ generation, yet have become a financial anchor for our own. That’s why a little bit over per year ago, I joined thousands of students in launching Rise California, a student-led nonprofit agency fighting for free college. Day-to-day, we amplify students’ stories about the repercussions of the cost of college and the fight for free college. For now, we have organized tens of thousands of students to help pass a first-year free community college law, stop university tuition hikes, and win hundreds of millions more dollars for students in the state legislature. Enacting the California College Promise is the next step in putting college within reach of every student in our state.


As we have begun building the free college movement in California, voters are taking notice, also. In a recent poll by the Public Policy Institute of California, likely voters ranked free community college as their second-highest priority for new state funding, just beyond universal healthcare.


The good news for students is that we’re gaining support from newly-elected officials. California’s new Governor Gavin Newsom recommended $40 million in his first-ever financial range to create the second year of community college free for an estimated 28,000 eligible students. In San Francisco, where Newsom previously served as Mayor, voters passed a local initiative to prepare San Francisco City College free for all residents.


Nevertheless free college isn't just a cause for progressives or those living in California. Republican leaders in Tennessee have enacted the most comprehensive free community college program in the country, helping thousands more students enroll in college and take out fewer student cash advances. Since the creation of the Tennessee Promise, legislators in other red states like West Virginia are seeking to build programs of their own. Conservative and liberal policy makers alike are seeing the value of free community college for helping people prepare for jobs in a speedily changing economy. With millions of jobs unfilled because of a lack of qualified workers, improving the access and affordability of higher education is one of the most crucial things we can do to improve our economy and level the playing field for workers.


As Governor Newsom and California leaders start a new legislative session of their own, you could expect to be able to see thousands of students voicing their support for free community college. We are calling on ongress to speedily amend the California Promise, so that every California student understands they can complete two years of community college tuition-free.