The Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) Board of Trustees has unanimously approved a resolution to improve college access and completion rates for students of the district’s nine colleges.

The board created the Los Angeles College Promise initiative to ensure that students have access to higher education.

The goal is to build widespread support for free community college education for all responsible students and create a broad public understanding that free community college is an investment in America’s future and a necessary continuation after K-12 education.

The LACCD Board of Trustees will work collaboratively with business partners, chambers of commerce, economic and workforce development organizations, philanthropic associations and elected officials to achieve the goals, and they will advocate for legislation that provides the framework and sustainable funding for a statewide California Promise Program.

Since President Obama introduced America’s College Promise, the White House has worked to form coalitions that advocate for universal two-year college, stressing the need to increase the number of Americans with a postsecondary degree or credential by 2020. The campaign has a national advisory board headed by honorary chair Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, and honorary vice chair Jim Geringer, former governor of Wyoming. Scott Svonkin, president of the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees, is one of the 18 members of the advisory board.

“I am honored and humbled to be a part of this campaign. It is a great responsibility to represent Los Angeles in the effort to convince Congress and the nation of the need to make community college tuition free,” Svonkin said. “It is clear to me that President Obama understands that community colleges can be the path to a brighter future for so many. I, myself, am a high school dropout, and the goal is to give students like I was the chance to go to college.”

The LACCD Board of Trustees has passed other resolutions in support the America’s College Promise Act. The LACCD has become a necessity for thousands of people of all ages to attain lucrative and satisfying jobs and careers, and to four-year university, Svonkin added.