Giving voice to California students

Last week I welcomed into my office Michael Jackson, an impressive young man, constituent, and former foster youth.  Michael is currently a community college student working hard on his goal of transferring to UC Berkeley.  After spending a day with Michael and talking about his situation, it became clear that he faces many obstacles that I, and past generations of Californians, simply did not have to face in pursuing higher education. Unfortunately, this is all too common.

Like many community college students, Michael is forced to find available classes at multiple college campuses to get the credits required to transfer. Like so many students his age Michael is forced to work two jobs to pay for classes. This is a common story that I hear too often when I visit Pierce College and CSUN. In many cases students are forced to study one semester and then work the next to pay for their education. This is a large factor in why less than 20% of CSU students graduate within 4 years.

As a product of our CSU, Community College and UC systems I have made it my top priority in the state Assembly to give a voice to these students. That is why this week I supported measures that will increase funding to all three of our systems and expand the Cal-Grant and Middle Class Scholarship by hundreds of millions of dollars. These resources will allow thousands of additional valley students to have access and afford to attend our local colleges and universities— Pierce, Valley, Mission, CSUN and UCLA.

For millions of Californians like Michael and me, our state’s higher education system still offers the best path to a good paying job and middle class security, and it is our responsibility to make sure that path remains open to all. As we enter the final stages of budget negotiations, I will be urging my colleagues in the State Senate and the Governor’s Office to ensure that these resources are in our State’s final budget. While I wholeheartedly support the creation of a Rainy Day Fund and paying down our State’s long term debt, we must recognize that education funding is not just a number on a piece of paper, but a representation of the opportunity for the success of our children.

I hope our state budget this year will help increase Michael’s chances of attending Berkeley, so he can finally earn that coveted UC diploma!