A Significant Win for Student Success!
June 19, 2018
by Gary Toebben
For nearly a decade, the L.A. Area Chamber and its allies have championed policies to increase the percentage of community college students who successfully complete a degree or certificate. Today, we celebrate a significant win in addressing student completion.
As part of the State budget conference agreement, Gov. Brown and the California Legislature reached a consensus on the California Community Colleges’ Student-Focused Funding Formula. This new formula will change how the State funds community colleges from the current enrollment-based model, to one that takes into account the success of students in completing their educational goals. This outcomes-based formula will utilize funding incentives to improve student retention and the completion of degrees, credentials and transfer requirements.
Our California Community Colleges are a beacon of access. They reflect the great diversity of our state, including many low-income, first-generation college students. It is essential that our community colleges place a strong emphasis on completion, not just enrollment, because we know that a postsecondary education remains the surest path to better wages and less poverty. Under the new funding formula, our community colleges will receive the additional resources they need to help all students forge a path to economic and social mobility.
The L.A. Area Chamber commends and thanks Governor Brown, the California Legislature, California Community College Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley and other key partners for their leadership and willingness to respond to our request for meaningful reforms as cited in our May 1 Business Perspective.
These new incentives and investments will create a more productive California Community College system and provide our employers with a larger and more talented labor pool with industry-valued credentials. Our employers need a talented workforce to compete with the rest of the world and to grow California's economy. This new formula is a major step forward.
And that's The Business Perspective.
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