Written by Sasha Reva
Governor Gavin Newsom announced that California is planning on helping a select number of students to pay for their college tuition for the exchange of hundreds of hours of community service. The #CaliforniansForAll College Corps has collaborated with 45 universities, colleges and community colleges whose students will be able to apply for the program.
“California is a world leader in both higher education and service” says Governor Gavin Newsom. “The #CaliforniansForAll College Corps advances these priorities by connecting Californians of different backgrounds with enriching service opportunities throughout the state while making college more affordable for our state’s future leaders.” About 6,500 undergraduate students are going to be selected to take part in the volunteer program over two academic years. The community service is going to be working with COVID-19 recovery, K-12 education and climate action. Each student who completes the 450 hour volunteer program will receive $10,000 through a $7,000 stipend and a $3,000 education award. With that, students also are going to receive academic credit for their volunteer work, but the amount and type of credit will be determined by the individual school.
The program is intended to bring some form of debt relief to California students. About 4 million Californians owe $147 billion in student debt. The College Corps program is trying to help ease the debt burdens on graduates. The program will also allow opportunities for “Dreamers”. The program is set to begin in August 2022 and end in July 2023 with a second cycle picking up the following month and ending in June 2024.
While some may see this as a good program, others could see it as a form of bribery from the state. Making high schoolers volunteer for work on “climate action” could just be Newsom’s attempt at getting students to forward his policies.
Photo Cred: Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group
