Here's good news for the soon-to-be freshman students in San Jose, California. The officials have just launched a new San Jose Promise program which will make higher education more affordable for everyone and free for the students who come from low income families.
Mayor Sam Liccardo and community college leaders launched the said program which will take care of the first two years of a student's costs at a community college which include the tuition, fees, materials, books and transportation, The Mercury News reported.
This is somewhat similar to the one of San Francisco's which also offers free tuition to all San Francisco students. Both programs give money to the qualified students and will be eligible for free college for two years, and the funding will be coming from the state and the city, according to ABC7 News.
Licardo cited the statistics from the Department of Education which states that out of 100 high school students, only 84 graduate, and out of the 84 graduates, only 60 students are able to attend college. He said that families and parents are wondering about where to get the money to pay for the college costs.
The program will be able to accommodate about 800 students and the ones who are attending San Jose City College, Evergreen Valley College and West Valley College. The students' eligibility for the scholarship will be based on their family's income and they can start applying for the grants this June when they visit their school's financial aid office.
The funding for the said program will come from the California College Promise Innovation Grant Program. Each campus was awarded a total amount of $750,000 and aside from this, San Jose will also be sharing some taxpayer dollars to launch the program but there is no definite amount just yet.
