The vision of funding free access to community colleges advanced Wednesday after unanimous support from the Board of Trustees of the San Mateo County Community College District to provide $ 6.75 million in one-time funding for the effort.
“It is a huge step towards the community college, which is fulfilling its primary mission of providing affordable access to further education and the first step on the ladder,” said board trustee John Pimentel.
The trustees unanimously approved the board’s preliminary budget of more than $ 470.4 million on Wednesday, June 23. Noteworthy is the $ 6.75 million the district used to expand its Free Community College Strategic Initiative.
Funding will help expand the Promise Scholars program, dual enrollment at the College of San Mateo and Skyline College, and the zero-cost textbook program.
Promise Scholars, which saw its first group of enrollments in 2017, offers comprehensive educational and financial services for freshmen and full-time students. After taking into account state and federal grants, the cost of direct assistance is approximately $ 1,800 per student.
Dual enrollment helps current high school juniors and seniors complete both high school and college level courses. In the 2020/21 school year, almost 2,800 students were enrolled for the program, which corresponds to 19% of all 11th and 12th grade students in the district.
With an initial investment of $ 2.5 million, the district aims to increase its enrollment rate by 50% in the 2021-22 school year, 31% in 2022-23, and 36% in 2023-24.
The Promise Scholars Program previously received financial backing from the Board of Directors who allocated $ 2 million to the program, which was split between Fiscal Year 2021-22 and Fiscal Year 2022-23. The grant helped increase the number of eligible participants for the program from 2,000 to 2,500. The district’s investment could support up to 4,000 students by the 2023-24 school year.
“I’m very excited to be part of this type of investment,” said Pimentel. “I would like to see us reach 6,000 Promise Scholars.”
David Canepa, president of the board of directors and proponent of Promise Scholars expansion, commended the trustees for their investment. While Canepa recognized the county’s immense wealth, it noted that the region is also home to severe poverty and the wage gap is only widening.
He shared the hope of eventually expanding the program to allow middle-aged residents to “reinvent themselves” and potentially keep younger students and older community members struggling to stay in the county.
“Our middle class in San Mateo County is rapidly disintegrating,” Canepa said. “We can’t just stand idle.”
Trustee Maurice Goodman echoed Canepa, stating that the county’s “spectrum of haves and dispossessed” is only growing. He stressed the importance of providing access to education for the most underserved communities, saying that education is “the great balance”.
Recognizing the county’s contribution and the college’s putting its own “skin in”, Goodman said he would like to see other community organizations recognize the importance of supporting initiatives like Promise Scholars.
“I hope that our community partners, corporate partners, and foundations in our region will see this not only as an opportunity to give back to our universities but also to their future workforce,” said Goodman.
While one-time funds were used as seed funding for the program, Pimentel said the district will rely on property tax revenues and third-party contributions to keep the program going.
Eventually, the board could compromise, Pimentel said, which resulted in some initiatives being withdrawn from funding as the district focuses on equal access to secondary education. Still, he highlighted the district’s strong general fund reserve despite the pandemic, pointing out the importance of investing the “abundance of the region in creating opportunity for all San Mateans.”
“My hope is to keep pushing for a free community college,” said Pimentel. “San Mateo County can be a real leader here when it comes to making community college free nationwide.”
sierra@smdailyjournal.com
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source https://collegeeducationnewsllc.com/free-tuition-expanding-in-san-mateo-county-community-college-district-local-news/
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