On Free Education Newsom college plan flawed

G

ov. Gavin Newsom wants you to get a community college degree for free. Newsom’s first budget proposal calls for the state to waive two years’ worth of community college fees for first-time students who are enrolled on a full-time basis.

His plan would expand the state’s current program, the California College Promise, which waives a year’s worth of community college fees for these students.

It will be hugely popular with the public. The Public Policy Institute of California has found that 73 percent of California adults support government funding to make community college free.

In addition to being excellent politics, two years’ worth of free community college would be relatively affordable. It would cost the state an additional $40 million on top of the $46 million already allocated by Gov. Jerry Brown for the one-year plan.

But would it work?

A successful plan would increase the number of California students with either an associate’s degree or a transfer plan into a four-year college, important metrics for the state’s longterm economic health. Given California’s high poverty rates, it would increase the number of first-generation college graduates. Finally, it would — ideally — lower students’ debt loads.

That’s a long to-do list for a single budget item. Realistically, it’s too long. Without concurrent changes in California’s financial aid system and its other institutions of higher education, free community college won’t be the solution it could be.

According to Hans Johnson, a senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, California ranks

Number of degrees

17,956 21,303 34,329 67,208 140,796