Dive Brief:
- The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS) analyzed survey responses from about 12,000 California community college students, two-thirds of whom are low-income and face a special set of challenges in pursuing their degrees.
- In its report, "On the Verge: Costs and Tradeoffs Facing Community College Students," the institute advocates for financial aid that covers the total cost of college, not simply tuition, leaving students with the costs of food, housing, transportation, and course materials.
- Some students facing financial difficulty take out expensive loans or acquire credit card debt, and others increase their work hours to fill gaps, but both strategies end up hurting students who would have better chances of succeeding with grant aid as an alternative.
Dive Insight:
Community college tuition in California is among the lowest in the nation, and low-income students qualify for tuition waivers all together. The state, as a result, provides one of the most illustrative backdrops for a study of student finances. Tuition-free college proposals have their limits for precisely the reasons outlined in the TICAS report. Tuition is far from the only cost students incur to attend college.
Especially at the nation’s community colleges, students enroll with significant outside commitments, including caregiving and full-time work. Nontraditional students, most of whom have these types of commitments, now make up the bulk of all college students in the nation. Against this backdrop, and paired with rising average student debt, the issue of college financing has made its way to the center of political debates at the state and federal levels.