A California Senate bill that would provide free college tuition for the state’s 60,000 foster youth advanced in the Senate Education Committee last week.
The Senate Education Committee unanimously approved the bill during a March 29 hearing and referred it for a hearing in the state Senate Committee on Human Services in the coming weeks.
The program would cover 100 percent of tuition for foster youth enrolled in associate degree or certificate programs at a community college or in a four-year program at a California State University or University of California campus—including food, textbooks, and housing.
The funds would be available after other state and federal aid—usually the Cal Grant, which covers a portion of tuition for all California residents, and the Chafee Grant, which covers a portion of tuition for foster youth—is applied, according to the bill.
During the March 29 hearing, Ashby told the committee that the bill is intended to help provide foster youth with the resources they need to support themselves after they age out of the system.
“[This bill] will give foster youth agency to take care of themselves,” Ashby said. “Imagine being able to tell a 14-year-old who’s lost everything, including their parents, that if they can just focus on school, that there’s a way out for them in the future.”
Ashby said that housing instability and homelessness are a top concern among foster youth once they turn 18.
Ashby also said that the bill would redirect approximately $21 million from the Middle Class Scholarship Program to cover the cost of college attendance for foster youth.
Several youth and education organizations spoke at the meeting to support the bill—including City Youth, California Alliance of Child and Family Services, and California Charter Schools Association.
There were no speakers in opposition to the bill at the hearing.