In his $1.8 trillion American Families Plan proposed back in April, Joe Biden brought forth a plan that would waive two years of community college tuition for students, while also offering additional financial assistance to lower-income students.

This comes at a time where California’s community colleges already offer lower-income students a tuition-free education, an academic constituency that makes up an overwhelming amount of its student population, with over 80% of California community college students having family incomes of lower than $48,000 according to data from the Public Policy Institute of California published in 2017.

With California being ahead of many other states in helping its community college students financially, it begs the question: what can colleges do with these potential extra funds and in what ways can they lobby for them? Today on AirTalk, we dig into the subject and see how local community colleges can use this proposal as a way to help its students during the financial strains that have come from the pandemic.

Guests:

Erika Endrijonas, superintendent and president of Pasadena City College 

Larry Galizio, president & CEO of Community College League of California, a non-profit advocacy group with voluntary membership from community colleges across the state

Eloy Ortiz Oakley, chancellor for California Community Colleges