The affordability gap
San Francisco Chronicle 3/15/07
But, on average, only 1 in 4 community-college students, who started out to get an associate of arts degree or transfer to a four-year college, end up meeting their goals.
A major reason is that the financial aid available to community-college students is completely inadequate.
California levies the lowest fees of any community-college system in the nation -- $20 a unit -- but fees comprise only 5 percent of the costs of going to college.
As a report from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education based in San Jose points out, the value of state aid -- known as Cal Grant B, the main state grant to community-college students -- has increased by a pitiful 15 percent over the past 20 years. (For the full report, go to www.highereducation.org.)
If these grants had kept pace with the California Consumer Price Index, which has gone up far less than the cost of going to college, the maximum grant today would be $5,190.
Instead, the maximum grant students receive is $1,551.
Another problem is that students are far less likely to apply for and receive federal college grants and loans. For example, only 15 percent of California's community-college students receive Pell Grants -- compared to 25 percent of community-college students in other states.
One reason students don't qualify for the maximum Pell Grants is because the low fees that California charges has had the perverse effect of limiting the size of the grant they are eligible for.
It would make sense to raise fees at a predictable rate for those who can afford them, and provide waivers or fee reductions for those who can't.
More important, the state has no choice but to increase aid to community-college students, who make up two-thirds of all students taking courses for credit in California.
Providing aid to students at a scandalously low level set decades ago is unfair to students, and detrimental to the future of the state.