ONE-YEAR FREE COMMUNITY COLLEGE TUITION UNDER NEW CA LAW
East County News Service
October 16, 2017 (Sacramento) -- California has a shortage of college-educated workers. A key obstacle is cost. So, Governor Jerry Brown has signed into law Assembly Bill 19, to provide community college students one year of tuition-free education.
The bill waives all tuition fees for full-time students in their first year, though students would still need to cover costs of books or other expenses.
That’s $46 per credit, so a student with the minimum of 12 units a semester would have $552 in tuition paid for by taxpayers. A student taking 18 units would get $828 in tuition fee waivers.
California isn’t the first to drop tuitions; Oregon, Tennessee and Rhode Island have also begun offering tuition-free community college classes to help address the college affordability crisis.