Free City College is a lifeline for San Franciscans

City College has long been a beacon of opportunity for San Franciscans, offering quality and accessible higher education.

High-school graduates aiming to transfer to four-year institutions, career-minded students learning new vocations, immigrants improving their English, professionals seeking new career paths, high-school students getting ahead with college classes, and seniors engaging in lifelong learning — City College has served them all.

As a teenager, I enrolled in City College to expand my academic horizons and earn extra credits, which helped me graduate from UC San Diego with a bachelor’s degree at just 19 years old. City College not only saved me money but also allowed me to access higher education and complete my degree early.

However, proposed changes to the Free City College program might threaten the transformative effect City College had on me and so many other San Franciscans.

Under a proposal considered by The City, starting in 2025, only certain courses that contribute to specific educational plans would be eligible for free enrollment. Exact details will be proposed in the coming year.

Additionally, proposed city budget cuts could reduce Free City College funding from $18.9 million in 2023-24 to just $9.3 million in 2024-25 and $7.2 million by 2025-26. Plans to withdraw reserve funding, which has previously been used for student debt relief, are also on the chopping block.

In 2016, the Free City College Coalition and Supervisor Jane Kim led the passage of Proposition W , which increased the municipal transfer tax on properties worth more than $5 million, promising to fund Free City College for all San Franciscans.

After the measure passed, an agreement was struck to fund Free City College from fall 2017 to spring 2019 as part of a two-year pilot program. Despite Prop. W generating $30 million to $38 million annually, The City initially contributed only $5.3 million per year, which was insufficient to cover all tuition and program expenses for the first two academic years of the pilot.

Before leaving office, Supervisor Kim initiated a charter amendment to permanently secure funding for Free City College, starting in fall 2020.

A funding gap for the 2019-20 academic year led to negotiations between the Free City College Coalition, Supervisor Gordon Mar and the Mayor’s Office that secured a 10-year commitment to Free City College, beginning at $15 million in 2019-20, $15.7 million in 2020-21, $16.4 million in 2021-22 and adjusted annually based on inflation thereafter until 2029. The charter amendment was withdrawn as a part of this agreement.

Now, The City is considering reneging on its 2019 agreement to provide 10 years of dedicated funding for Free City College.

This comes at a critical time when City College has balanced its budget with a 5% reserve for the last several fiscal years and received an independent financial audit with no negative findings for the first time in 25 years.

Despite a 10% increase in enrollment this academic year, adding 1,000 full-time students, City College’s enrollment and budget are still fragile. Accreditors have warned that the college must prepare for long-range fiscal challenges, including a revenue freeze beginning in the 2025-26 fiscal year that will remain until City College can significantly increase enrollment enough to receive cost-of-living adjustments under a newly enacted state funding formula.

San Franciscans voted for Prop. W in 2016 to support and provide funding for Free City College. Turning back on the 2019 agreement would undermine student access to higher education and destabilize City College, particularly as it faces impending financial hurdles and is counting on stable enrollment growth.

For a small fraction of the City’s $16 billion budget that has already been set aside, San Francisco can uphold its promise of free community college tuition, and even expand support for student debt relief, basic needs, and public transit.

City College is San Francisco’s only lifelong learning institution where all residents — regardless of age, income or background — can enroll for free. Free enrollment is essential to our mission of removing barriers for low-income students, historically marginalized communities, working students and parents who need childcare to attend classes.

Let’s not roll back the clock on City College’s mission to provide accessible quality education for all.

Alan Wong is president of the City College of San Francisco Board of Trustees and co-chair of the Free City College Oversight Committee. He also serves on the board of the City College Foundation. As a City Hall education-policy advisor in 2019, Wong worked on drafting and passing the legislation guaranteeing a decade of free City College for all San Franciscans.