Gavin Newsom and Eloy Ortiz Oakley: Free community college tuition will drive California economy
Gavin Newsom and Eloy Ortiz Oakley: Free community college tuition will drive California economy
By Gavin Newsom and Eloy Ortiz Oakley Special to the Mercury News
Posted: 11/12/15, 6:41 PM PST | Updated: 12 hrs ago
The odds were stacked against Christopher Soriano: the son of immigrants from El Salvador and a first generation U.S. citizen, raised in a low-income and under-resourced community, and forced to navigate a public education system that fails to graduate too many young people.
Today, Soriano is a medical student at UCLA and the first in his family to earn a degree. He defied expectations because people believed in him, and because a program called the Long Beach College Promise allowed him to access a community college education.
Medical school, or a four-year degree for that matter, is not the goal for all students, but the state is on-track to produce 1.1 million fewer college graduates than our economy demands in 2030. California faces a major skills gap at a time when the jobs of today and tomorrow require postsecondary education. There is an imminent need for a workforce with an appropriate level of advanced education.
We are calling for the launch of the California College Promise, a bold effort to offer two tuition-free years of community college for responsible students. This promise is true to California's tradition of advancing our educational system at critical junctures to give future generations better opportunities to succeed.
More:
http://www.dailydemocrat.com/general-news/20151112/gavin-newsom-and-eloy-ortiz-oakley-free-community-college-tuition-will-drive-california-economy