City College free-tuition program faces budget cuts

City College of San Francisco educators say the school’s ability to offer free tuition to all San Franciscans is under threat amid City Hall’s changing budget priorities.

The city budget adopted last month appropriates $9.3 million to the program this fiscal year — or just shy of half of what was allotted in the 2023-24 budget ($18.9 million) — and nearly $7.2 million in 2025-26.

School officials say that falls well shy of the $15 million in annual baseline funding the program averaged in its first six years, relying upon revenue from a voter-approved 2016 tax on San Francisco’s wealthiest residents. The City, meanwhile, contends the program has accrued millions in unspent funds during its lifetime.

“It’s like pulling the rug out from under [the students],” CCSF English professor Alisa Messer, who campaigned for the Free City College program in 2016, told The Examiner.

“I don’t know that The City does itself any favors by offering something that is so fundamentally purpose-driven and valuable, and then you turn around and take it from people,” she said.

Voters approved Proposition W in 2016, increasing the real-estate transfer tax on properties worth more than $5 million. Revenue from the transfer tax goes into The City’s general fund and is not specifically earmarked for Free City College.

But months before voters approved the measure, the Board of Supervisors passed a resolution of intent to make City College tuition-free for residents and identified revenue from the proposed transfer tax increase as a possible source of funding.

The City then partnered with the community college in 2017 to launch a Free City College pilot program that offered all residents access to free, accredited courses. The credits in the pilot could be used toward associate degrees, career technical certifications or transfer credits to four-year colleges.

The program created a sudden spike in sorely needed enrollment for the college in its first year. Total enrollment grew by 22% during the 2017-2018 school year, and in the years since the program’s launch, more than 114,000 students have made use of the program.

According to last year’s annual report by the Free City College Oversight Committee, roughly 17,000 San Franciscans take credit courses for free each year.

Ariana Veloro, a second-year CCSF student, said the Free City College program allowed her to stop working and concentrate on her studies. Before establishing residency and qualifying for the program, Veloro said she was balancing her studies with a full-time job.

“Once I had lived here for a year, I’d finally been able to qualify for the Free City grant,” she said. “I quit my job so I could focus on school rather than spending all my energy at work. It lifted a huge weight off of my shoulders to not have to look at the $8,000 bill every semester.”

Staring down a massive budget deficit earlier this year, The City sought to reclaim the Prop. W funds and redirect them toward the general fund. Maria Su, Executive Director of the Department of Children, Youth and Their Families, which oversees the Free City College program, told The Examiner that Free City College’s unspent total “is hitting close to $23 million.”

“Those are precious dollars, and it’s sitting [in City College’s] bank account,” she said.

Su said the department determined that the college was only spending $9 million to offer free courses to all residents.

“What The City is saying to them is, ‘We’ll decrease our allocation to you, because clearly you’re not spending all of those dollars,’” Su said. “And in the meantime, use the unspent funds that you have accumulated over the last several years”

In an email addressed to City College Board of Trustees President Alan Wong reviewed by The Examiner, Hong Mei Pang — Mayor London Breed’s youth and families advisor — said the $9.3 million appropriated to the program this fiscal year represents “a true up of our investments to the current Free City enrollment levels.” Beginning in July 2025, only certain courses will be eligible for free enrollment, which Pang said include “those that contribute to the fulfillment of student educational plans.”

“That can mean many things,” Wong told The Examiner. “It can mean only providing tuition-free enrollment for classes that go toward associate degrees. But what about [English courses for non-native speakers] or courses on child development?”

Wong said the City College Board of Trustees has not yet received a proposal from The City. He said he anticipates that negotiations will continue throughout the year.

He said putting a price tag back on some courses will limit opportunities for working-class and low-income residents.

“Those students won’t be able to access some courses if they aren’t tuition-free,” he said.

Wong and Messer said the reversal dismantles a 2019 agreement between CCSF and The City that came about when former supervisor Gordon Mar and the mayor’s office negotiated a memorandum of understanding with San Francisco committing to fully funding the free-tuition program through August 2029.

Messer said The City didn’t provide notice of the forthcoming changes during the oversight committee’s meeting.

“We didn’t know that the MOU was going to be undermined,” Messer said. “We were told that was off the table and would be discussed. So to hear that a decision has been made is very concerning.”

In the November election, San Franciscans will weigh in on 15 measures — two bonds, eight charter amendments and five ordinances — and Wong said the impending changes to the free-tuition model are a reminder that promises aren’t always kept, “even if it’s the will of the voters and intention of the measure.”

“This will destabilize the college,” Wong said of losing Prop. W funds. “This will hurt our enrollment [figures] during a time when we need to be increasing it.”