*Legislation signed into law this week will allow foster children and teens in California to attend state and community colleges free of charge.
As KTLA reports, the new Fostering Futures program will pay for foster youth to attend a California State University, University of California, or a community college, according to state Sen. Angelique Ashby’s office. There are approximately 60,000 children in the state’s foster care system, and officials say 93% want to go to college. According to Ashby, the foster youth high school graduation rate is 64%, but only 4% achieve a four-year college degree.
Fostering Futures will allocate $25 million to cover tuition, housing, books, and food, The Messenger reports.
“Far too many foster youth want to go to college, and are unable to afford it,” Ashby, who authored the bill, said in a statement. “This funding will ensure that California’s most vulnerable young people can take agency over their lives by seeking higher education.”
Gavin Newsom signed the bill into law on Monday as part of a budget agreement.
“For foster youth who have lost everything, this bill provides hope that they can attend college without crippling debt—taking one critical step toward our state’s goal of making college attainable for all, and making foster youth the first to achieve debt-free college in California,” Ashby said.
Former foster child Shane Harris, who leads the nonprofit People’s Association of Justice Advocates, told KFMB-TV the funding is “a tremendous victory for foster youth across California.”
“Who wouldn’t want to go to college for free, and especially when you’re in the situations many of us have been in?” said Harris, a San Diego resident who has supported the bill as it moved through the legislative process.
“When you lose your parents, you don’t have the support system, you’re trying to make it through all these different challenges, and then you go to pay for college?”
READ MORE: California Has Spent Billions to Fight Homelessness. The Problem Has Gotten Worse | VIDEOs
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