Return to No Tuition
I speak here not as a rep for Cabrillo, or representing the Board of Trustees, only myself.
Our POTUS Joe Biden said it: two years of free community college tuition nationwide. Twelve states are already doing this. At his State of the Union address, he put Dr. Jill Biden, an adjunct community college English professor in Virginia, in charge of the effort to make it happen.
We had this before 1970. Ronald Reagan eliminated it.
When I entered El Camino Community College in July 1971, the tuition was $3 a unit. I could afford it. I was able to pay for my books and tuition from my earnings as a night school custodian through the end of 1973. I was able to transfer to Cal State Dominguez Hills, to later get my BA and first teaching credential.
This is highly unlikely today.
We need to return to the days of no tuition for community college.
Community college helps those who are not in the middle class become part of it. For purposes of equity, diversity and inclusion, it is a clear solution.
During the past year, too many students have dropped their classes at Cabrillo due to the expense, and the need to go to work full time. And our nation, and Cabrillo College, are suffering for it.
It is time to do the right thing again. Make community college affordable to everyone. I shall do everything within my power as a trustee of the college to make it happen.
Steve Trujillo
Watsonville
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