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Volume 8, Issue 5
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December 11, 2012
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 It is the season of giving thanks and reflecting on all we have. Many of you know how grateful and honored I have been to lead the Campaign's work over the course of the past four years. I am blessed to work with amazing colleagues and to partner with many of you who care as deeply as I do about ensuring that our young people have the same opportunities we have had.
As the first in my family to graduate from college, I know first-hand how life-changing the opportunity can be. My mom only had a sixth grade education, worked as a seamstress, and lived paycheck to paycheck. She knew that if I got an education my path would be better. And it has been.
My story is not unique and many of you share it. College has prepared us for better jobs and opened doors not available to those with a high school diploma or less. It has allowed many of us to succeed beyond our parents' own expectations. I will always be thankful for this, and yet today our country is on track to produce a generation of young people less educated than we are. I find that unacceptable and un-American.
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Despite this, I am not without hope. I am heartened by Californians' willingness to raise taxes to protect education through Proposition 30, loudly declaring that even in tough economic times, we know that investing in education is critical to our economic recovery and the future of our state. Thank you!
Prop. 30 brings a greater level of predictability and stability to funding for our schools and public colleges and universities, following devastating budget cuts over the past several years. And though it is not a complete solution and more must be done, I am grateful to partners like you who will continue to work alongside the Campaign to preserve college access and increase completion rates, despite the challenges we may face, be it funding, political will, or otherwise. We remain deeply committed to improving how our colleges serve students and ensure their success. Read our press statement on Prop. 30's passage here.
I am also proud of the work that has been done to implement historic community college transfer reform. Our latest report shows that great progress has been made by community colleges and the California State University systems. But as we look forward to the next year, we know that more must be done to ensure the original intent of the law is achieved and we intend to help make that a reality. Read more on the Meeting Compliance, but Missing the Mark report.
The release of California's Economic Payoff reminds our policymakers and the public of the enormous return on investment public higher education produces. The report found that for every $1 spent on higher education, California receives a net return of $4.50. We traveled the state meeting with business, education, community, and student leaders to share these findings, and many became more deeply engaged in advocacy for increased investment coupled with critical reforms to prepare California's future workforce. Read more about the statewide briefings we conducted.
Theodore Roosevelt said, "Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing." For this I am especially grateful; we have much worthwhile work to do, but I am confident that together, we can ensure that all students have the opportunity to go to college and reach their college dreams, so our state can be a better place for all of us.
Sincerely,
Michele Siqueiros
Executive Director
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 NEW REPORT ON IMPLEMENTATION OF HISTORIC TRANSFER REFORM
In 2010, you joined us in supporting historic transfer reform legislation SB 1440 by Senator Alex Padilla to streamline the transfer pathway from California community colleges to the California State University so we could significantly increase the number of community college students who earned degrees and were guaranteed admission with junior status. Meeting Compliance, but Missing the Mark, is a progress report on implementation of SB 1440. It finds that while tremendous progress in facilitating statewide transfer reform has been led at the system-wide level, more remains to be done at all individual colleges and universities to ensure that the original intent of the legislation is realized. Specifically, the report found: - At the California Community Colleges (CCC) and California State University (CSU) statewide level, curricula for 22 of the 25 target majors has been established - a significant achievement that makes the next steps in implementation possible.
- The level of implementation at individual colleges is not uniform.
- An average of just five degrees have been developed by each of the 112 CCCs
- Only 18 of the CCCs have developed at least nine of the initial 18 majors
- 18 colleges have met just the minimum standards by establishing only two Associate Degrees for Transfer
- The CSUs also showed wide variance in adoption of the major transfer pathways.
- Only four of the 22 CSU campuses have approved 100 percent of the initial 20 majors
- Only 10 of the 23 campuses have approved more than 80 percent of the options within the 20 majors
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PROMINENT PARTNERS WELCOME CHANCELLOR
 Nineteen prominent business, education, and civil rights leaders joined the Campaign in submitting a letter to newly appointed California Community College Chancellor Brice Harris and Chancellor-select Timothy White for the California State University. Our coalition congratulates these two leaders on their new role and urges a focus on priorities that will increase access and improve student completion rates at the California Community Colleges and at the CSU.
Our joint priorities urge our new Chancellors to: 1) Strengthen collaboration with K-12 and their public higher education counterparts, particularly on implementation of SB 1440 to streamline the transfer pathway; 
2) Get more students to completion of a certificate, degree or transfer and close equity gaps on student success for Latino, Black and Asian/Pacific Islander students;
3) Prioritize limited resources to provide the greatest possible enrollment of eligible California students; and
4) Relieve the uncertainty facing students and families by working towards a fee policy that ensures tuition increases are moderate and predictable.
Signers of the letter include: The California Chamber of Commerce, Education Trust West, Excelencia in Education, National Council of La Raza (California Region), California Competes, Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, Inland Empire Economic Partnership, Bay Area Council, Sacramento Metro Chamber of Commerce, San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation, Public Advocates, Los Angeles Urban League, The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS), The Advancement Project, Orange County Business Council, Hispanas Organized for Political Equality (HOPE), Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), Silicon Valley Leadership Group, and the California NAACP. Read the full letters sent to Chancellor Harris and Chancellor White here >>
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BRIEFINGS ON HIGHER EDUCATION'S PAYOFF
 Between June and November, more than 300 people from across the state, including leaders from education, business, civil rights, and legislative offices attended one of the five regional convenings in Sacramento, San Jose, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Marcos to discuss the economic payoff of higher education in California. At the events, Dr. Henry Brady, Dean of the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley, presented the research and recommendations of our report California's Economic Payoff, finding that for every $1 California invests in higher education, we receive a net return of $4.50. Additionally, Dr. Hans Johnson, Bren Policy Fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, presented his report, Defunding Higher Education: What are the Effects on College Enrollment, finding that, despite a positive increase in eligibility for college, fewer students are enrolling at California State University or University of California due to budget cuts. These conversations were particularly timely given Proposition 30's presence on the November ballot. There were discussions of what it would mean for higher education if Prop. 30 didn't pass. Even with the passage of Prop. 30, higher education has faced deep cuts in the past few years and we still need long-term solutions to stabilize and secure the funding necessary to ensure a spot in college for all eligible Californians and the ability for them to earn a certificate, degree or transfer in order to meet the projected workforce demand of 2.3 million more educated workers by 2025.Read more in our blog recapping the events >>
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RESEARCH OF INTEREST
 Recent reports from the Institute for Higher Education Leadership & Policy at Sacramento State University provide an overview of Career Technical Education (CTE) and workforce development in California Community Colleges. The first three reports in the four-part series, entitled Career Opportunities: Career Technical Education and the College Completion Agenda, analyze CTE structure and funding, examine the vast number of certificate and associate degree program offerings within the 112 colleges, and discusses CTE policies in other states that may hold promise for California. The final report (forthcoming next year) will provide recommendations for strengthening the state's policies in support of the CTE mission.
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 A new report from the Project on Student Debt at The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) finds that two-thirds of college seniors who graduated in 2011 had student loan debt, with an average of $26,600 per borrower, up from $25,250 in 2010. Meanwhile, unemployment for young college graduates remained high at 8.8 percent in 2011. Still, college graduates are much better off than those without a college degree, as the unemployment rate for high school graduates was 19.1 percent in 2011, more than double the rate for those with bachelor's degrees. This report, Student Debt and the Class of 2011, also includes average debt levels for the 50 states and District of Columbia and for more than 1,000 U.S. colleges and universities.
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 Recent data from The Working Poor Families Project (WPFP) shows that almost one out of three working families in the U.S. are low-income, and more than 10 million working families with 23 million children earn wages too low to meet basic family needs. WPFP supports nonprofit organizations in strengthening state policies on behalf of low-income working families. This report, 2012 State Policy Accomplishments, highlights key state policy actions of WPFP partners this year. The report is divided into two sections with the first focusing on state partners working to promote and advocate for education and skills training policies. The second section highlights partners' efforts to address work and family support policies to help low-income families move out of poverty.
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