SAN DIEGO — It could be a potential game changer for the 60,000 kids currently in California's foster care system, including more than 3,000 here in San Diego County.
Newly proposed legislation would cover the entire cost of their college education, from tuition and books to room and board
Advocates point out that 93% of foster youth say they want to go to college, but in the end, fewer than four percent actually get that opportunity.
"When you give kids real resources, they make the most of them," said State Senator Angelique Ashby, who is the author of SB 307. This newly proposed legislation would cover the entire cost of college for foster youth here in California at a UC, Cal State or California community college.
She explained that this legislation essentially provides a promise to those teens in the foster care system who did the hard work needed to make it to college, "that this state is going to make darn sure that you have everything you need: housing, books, computers, tuition, to get through and be debt-free on the other side."
"They are on their own in a very different way," said Debbie Raucher, director of education for the non-profit John Burton Advocates for Youth, which is a co-sponsor of this legislation.
She pointed out that the biggest barrier for foster youth who want to continue their education beyond high school Is financial.
"There's a lot of students out there who struggle financially to be able to afford college,' Raucher told CBS 8, "but for foster youth the struggle is multiplied by the fact that they don' have family support to fall back on as they try to move through college."
While college graduation rates among foster youth is disproportionately low, rates of eventual homelessness, unemployment, poverty and incarceration are disproportionately high, compared to the general population.
Senator Ashby said this move to cover their college costs would provide a critical intervention.
"It's about moving back in time on folks and trying to prevent additional incarceration, or additional homelessness, or additional poverty or additional disparity, by giving these young people a chance," she added.
The estimated annual cost of this legislation, according to Raucher, would be $21 million.
"It might sound like a lot, but in the grand scheme of things relative to the entire state budget, it is actually a very small amount that would make a tremendous difference in the lives of these young people," she said.
After other resources are exhausted, funding for this would come from the state's existing Middle Class Scholarship Fund.
"The Governor actually proposed an increase for the Middle Class Scholarship Fund," Ashby said, "and that increase would cover this, so that nobody loses any funding.."
SB 307, which has bipartisan support, has already passed the State Senate Education committee unanimously. If ultimately signed into law, it would go into effect at the start of the 2024-25 academic year.
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