Note: This post is cross-posted on Higher Ed Watch, a blog from New America's Higher Education Initiative. It has been a tumultuous 18 months for higher education in California. From student protests over double-digit percentage increases in education fees to cuts in community college services to an ongoing budget crisis, the figures representing the state’s fiscal and educational well-being are often massive -- and on the wrong side of the ledger.
Yet today, the City of San Francisco announced the start of a new low-cost program that offers both financial hope for students and a model for other municipalities, states, and the federal government to impact long-term issues of college affordability, access, and completion. The Kindergarten-to-College (K2C) program will provide a system of universal college savings accounts to every kindergartener entering the City’s public schools. This year, K2C (total cost: $250,000) will cover approximately 25% of the City’s students, focused on low-income neighborhoods, with citywide enrollment expected by the third year of the program.
