6 responses to “Free Lunch: CSM pushes “free college””

1. Phinancier

   November 23, 2024

   Some administrator somewhere that is making $150K plus benefits to administer the program is feeling exposed and needs to justify their job. Betcha twenty bucks.

2. Margie

   November 24, 2024

   My husband and I both have degrees from a CSU. We attended tuition free in the 1970’s. We both lived at home and worked. The fees were about $250 a semester. A few years after graduation. I went to CCSF for a degree in nursing. That was totally free with no fees.
   We paid for our kids to go away to college. It was free for them.
   One went to a CSU and one to a UC, so the tuition was a lot less than a private school. They had a lot more fun than we did. We all ended up with good careers and debt free at graduation.
   I remember the hundreds of glossy mailers my kids got from colleges all over the country during their junior and senior year of high school.

3. Phinancier

   November 25, 2024

   Partially subsidized and free are two different things.

4. Joe

   December 14, 2024

   The DJ is covering the “success”:
   Free college showing success in San Mateo County Community College District
   Enrollment increases, district plans for long-term service
   With a year of its free college initiative underway, the San Mateo County Community College District is celebrating significant increases in enrollment and equity as it looks to its sustainability going forward.
   Since fall 2022, the district has seen a 24% increase in enrollment in student headcount and a total of 26,656 students who have directly benefited from the program and the passage of Senate Bill 893, Vice Chancellor Dr. Aaron McBean said.
   SB 893 passed in 2022 authorizing the district to use general funds to pay enrollment fees and other costs for students. McBean reported that the majority of funds dedicated to the initiative are used for covering the state-mandatory $46 per unit enrollment fee for county residents.
   Additional funds have been dedicated to providing extra support for students demonstrating financial need, which has totaled 5,189 to date, and contribute to registration, materials and additional fees.
   The bill was passed for a five-year pilot period, and the district must submit a report to the department of finance and state Legislature by March 1, 2026, to request an extension “into infinity,” McBean said.

5. Joe

   February 8, 2025

   Some budgetary discipline appears to be in the wind from Sacramento:
   The Peralta Community College District, which runs four campuses for 32,000 East Bay students, said it could be forced to close at least one of its schools next year when state funding freezes at districts with declining enrollments.
   Peralta is one of 10 of the 73 community college districts in California that will become ineligible for annual cost-of-living budget increases from the state beginning in the 2025-26 fiscal year because they are missing at least one of three state-required criteria: enrollment at least as high as in 2018, enough low-income students receiving certain grants, or enough students graduating with an associate’s degree or a certificate in their field of study.
   https://www.sfchronicle.com/eastbay/article/peralta-community-college-funding-freeze-20149076.php

6. Peter Garrison

   February 9, 2025

   It might be a good bet to enroll in a trade school down south and become an electrician or a plumber and help rebuild Pacific Palisades.
   That could be a good career move for a 20, 30 year career.