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Brown’s efforts to restrict community college financial aid rejected
State Senate and Assembly committees have rejected several controversial elements of Gov. Jerry Brown’s recommendations on financial aid and financing of the state’s community colleges. The Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Education Finance on Wednesday voted down one proposal that would have required all community college students seeking a Board of Governor’s fee waiver to first complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as FAFSA, and another plan that would have required students with more than 90 credits to pay the full cost of community college courses. On Thursday, the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee concurred on two of those actions, holding open a vote on the FAFSA requirement. Nearly 1 million community college students receive a fee waiver at a cost of about $783 million this academic year and, according … Read entire article »
Filed under: College Enrollment, College Loans, Grants, Community Colleges, Jerry Brown, Quick Hits
Pursuit of college financial aid varies widely among high schools
California high school seniors are losing out on potentially hundreds of millions of dollars each year in financial aid – and forgoing the opportunity to attend college they assume they cannot afford – because only half of them fill out the forms for financial aid, according to a new report from Education Trust-West. But some high schools and some districts do a far better job in encouraging and assisting students and parents to provide the information, according … Read entire article »
Filed under: College Enrollment, College Loans, Grants, Community Colleges, Featured, Reporting & Analysis, UC and CSU
Community colleges to release scorecard rivaling the president’s
Students planning to attend one of the nation’s 4,500 colleges and universities have a new interactive College Scorecard touted by President Obama in his State of the Union address as a tool “to compare schools based on a simple criteria – where you can get the most bang for your educational buck.” Community college leaders say the focus on costs and graduation rates is a flawed lens for measuring their worth. Give it a few weeks, … Read entire article »
Filed under: California Colleges, Career Technical Education, College and Career Preparation, College Completion, College Loans, Grants, College Remediation, Community Colleges, Data, Featured, Reporting & Analysis, UC and CSU
GOP lawmakers recommend 7-year freeze on college fees
GOP lawmakers are proposing a seven-year moratorium on tuition and fee increases at California’s two-year and four-year public colleges, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times. The rationale for the time period? That’s the amount of time tax increases on high income earners approved by voters who supported Proposition 30 in last November’s elections will be in effect. Two bills along those lines have been introduced in the Legislature, according the article. What are the chances of the bills being approved? Almost zero – even though many Democrats have traditionally opposed college fee increases as a way to solve the state’s budget crisis. Democrats now enjoy an overwhelming majority in the Legislature and won’t need the GOP to pass a budget or even to raise revenues through additional fees and … Read entire article »
Filed under: College Loans, Grants, Quick Hits
Narrow win for middle class scholarship in Assembly
One Independent, one Republican, and one reluctant Democrat gave Assembly Speaker John Pérez the votes he needed to pass the most contentious piece of his Middle Class Scholarship Act. The Act is a two-bill package consisting of AB 1500 and AB 1501; the latter creates the program while the former establishes the funding source to pay for it. They both have to pass or the Scholarship Act fails and, because they’re urgency bills, both require a … Read entire article »
Filed under: California Colleges, College Loans, Grants, Community Colleges, Featured, Funding and Taxation, Initiatives, Legislature, Bills, Reporting & Analysis, Revenue and taxes, UC and CSU, Workforce preparation
Success comes from grit – and plenty of helping hands along the way
October 21st, 2012 | 2 Comments | By Emily Hanford
“Grit” is getting a lot of attention these days, due in large part to an excellent new book by Paul Tough, How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity and the Power of Character. Psychologists define grit as “perseverance and passion for long-term goals.” Research suggests that when it comes to high achievement, grit may be as essential as intelligence. That’s an exciting finding because while the intelligence that can be measured on an IQ test is resistant … Read entire article »
Filed under: Achievement Gap, College Completion, College Loans, Grants, College Remediation, Commentary, Equity issues, Featured, Poverty