Keeping California's Promise
California’s Master Plan for higher education, adopted in 1960, guarantees a place in college for every state resident who can benefit. The historic blueprint produced systems and programs that have served as models for other states and for countries across the globe. Now that much of the rest of the world has caught up to California, the state needs to find new ways to keep its promise.
The Institute is starting this work with a focus on the role of financial aid in serving the 2.5 million students at California’s community colleges.
See all of our research and publications about community colleges (in and outside of California).
Joint Letter to Legislators to Save the Cal Grant Program
The Institute for College Access & Success was one of seven California organizations that signed on to a letter to state legislators in protest of the proposed elimination of the Cal Grant program.
Governor Proposes Eliminating Cal Grants for More Than 200,000 Students this Fall
In direct contrast to federal efforts to increase college access during the current recession, Governor Schwarzenegger has proposed eliminating all new Cal Grants, along with deep cuts to public university systems and other essential state programs and services. The Cal Grant program has been an integral part of California’s commitment to college access and affordability for more than 50 years. Since 2001, all qualified graduating high school students have been guaranteed a Cal Grant.
Quick Facts About Community Colleges and Financial Aid, 2007-08
About one in four full-time college students in the U.S. — 2.2 million students — attends a community college. Of full-time community students who applied for financial aid, 80 percent did not get as much aid as they needed in 2007-08. We also found that although a relatively small percentage of community college students take out private student loans, these borrowers were much more likely than their peers at four-year institutions to miss out on cheaper federal loans.
Paving the Way: How Financial Aid Awareness Affects College
In a time of over-rising college costs, financial aid is critical to increase access and success. Federal, state, and institutional aid programs help to ensure that students can afford higher education regardless of economic background. Financial aid is most effective when students and families learn about it early enough to make the right choices and plans about high school coursework, family savings, work and earnings, and college options.
This literature review explores the questions of how and when students and families learn about college costs and financial aid, and how the timing and substanceof that information may impact college-going behavior.
Read the literature review
Cal Grant Cuts Would Hit Community College Students Hard
Many more community college students than students at California’sfour-year colleges would lose financial aid under GovernorSchwarzenegger’s proposed budget for 2009. This issue brief finds thatthe budget-cutting plan would eliminate new Cal Grant awards for 45percent of community college students who would have received them,compared to five percent of would-be recipients at the University ofCalifornia and 10 percent in the California State University system.
Read the brief
Green Lights & Red Tape: Improving Access to Financial Aid at California’s Community Colleges finds wide variations in financial aid policies and practices at the state’s community colleges, which can have a major impact on students’ access to available aid. We hope that our findings and recommendations encourage students, administrators, and policymakers to maximize the use of federal and state aid dollars.
Read the executive summary
Read the full report
We value your feedback. What are your reactions to Green Lights & Red Tape? Send comments to california [at] ticas [dot] org.
