SACRAMENTO, Calif. Today, May 14th, Governor Newsom released his revised budget. The SSCCC is pleased that the Governor has made significant investments in students as our system enrolls first-time students and recovers enrollment in the aftermath of a historic decline. The SSCCC has been fiercely advocating for more resources for California community college (CCC) students and we are elated to see that the budget proposal includes funding for emergency grants for students, basic needs centers and coordinators, student housing, Online Educational Resources, elimination of all deferrals, and DREAMer resources. Specifically, the Governor’s budget includes:
- COVID-19 Response Block Grant — $50 million one-time support grants to assist community colleges with responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and transitioning back toward in-person education.
- Student Basic Needs — $30 million ongoing funds for colleges to establish basic needs centers and hire basic needs coordinators to meet the urgent basic needs of students.
- Retention and Enrollment Strategies — $100 million one-time funding to support efforts to retain and enroll students.
- Student Housing — $4 billion one-time funding to establish a low-cost student housing grant program focused on expanding the availability of affordable student housing by allowing grants to be awarded to the UC, CSU, and CCCs to build new student housing.
- Zero-Textbook-Cost Degrees — $115 million one-time funding to develop and implement zero-textbook-cost degrees and open educational resources.
- Dreamer Resource Liaisons — $5.8 million ongoing funding to support Dreamer Resource Liaisons and student support services for immigrant students, including undocumented students in community college.
- Dual Enrollment — $75 million one-time funding to expand new and existing College and Career Access Pathways (CCAP) agreements between school districts and community colleges.
- Common Course Numbering — $10 million one-time funding to plan for and begin developing a common course numbering system throughout the community college system.
With these investments, we hope that this will be the jump-start our system needs to successfully recover and prevent us from losing a generation of students who may not otherwise have been afforded access to higher education.
"Community college students experienced basic needs insecurities at crisis level proportions before the pandemic. Now in a year when the needs of students have been exacerbated by a global pandemic, it is encouraging to see investments in our CCC system to help the system recover and provide resources for students when they need it most. The SSCCC will continue to advocate to the legislature that student-focused funding remain in the budget so students are provided what they need to succeed while in our system." Stephen Kodur, President
The California Community Colleges is the largest system of higher education in the nation, composed of 73 districts and 116 colleges serving 2.1 million students per year. The Student Senate for California Community College works to promote and safeguard access for current and future students to California public higher education in accordance with the Master Plan for Higher Education through system participatory governance, legislative and policy advocacy, and regional support and development and is the official voice of California community college students statewide.
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