Assemblyman Miguel Santiago, center, joined county officials and community college district administrators to announce legislation that will provide free tuition to more students. (photo courtesy of Assemblyman Miguel Santiago’s office)

Assemblyman Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles), joined Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis, 1st District; Los Angeles Community College District board of trustees member Mike Fong and community partners at a press conference on Feb. 17 to cel­ebrate the introduction of Assembly Bill 2266, which will expand the California College Promise program to provide two years of tuition-free community college to all full-time students.

“The LACCD College Promise Program has experienced unparal­leled success, with higher overall rates of completion and persis­tence among mostly first-genera­tion students,” LACCD chancellor Francisco C. Rodriguez said. “This bill expands much-needed access to higher education, keeps college affordable for working families and accelerates the jour­ney to a no-cost associates degree for all full-time students, keeping California globally competitive in an inclusive economy.”

In 2017, AB 19 (also authored by Santiago) established CCP, which authorized funding to be used by California community colleges to waive fees for first-time, full-time students during their first academic year. In 2019, AB 2 (Santiago) expanded upon the promise program by adding a second academic year of waived tuition for first-time, full-time stu­dents. Over 33,000 students received a CCP waiver in the 2020-21 academic year.

CCP is considered a holistic program that provides academic and financial support for students through the use of counselors, peer mentors and other student success tools. Currently, the program only provides two years of free com­munity college for first time stu­dents and does not include return­ing students. AB 2266 will remove the first-time requirement from the College Promise Program and allow all full-time students to receive two tuition-free years at any community college.