Let’s make City College FREE

Free City: reclaiming the promise of free, public higher education in San Francisco

*Current Free City Status: The Free City College program will be implemented at our CCSF beginning Fall Semester 2017. Free City will cover tuition costs for San Francisco residents who qualify for in-state tuition at City College of San Francisco and provide a 100-250/semester stipend for educational expenses for low income students.

More info: www.ccsf.edu/freecity

AFT 2121 is proud to be working together with a broad-based coalition of students, labor, community organizations, and City leaders to make community college free again – like it was before 1984. Our plan will increase access to educational opportunities for tens of thousands of San Francisco residents. Can you imagine what Free City College will do to bring thousands of students back to their education at City College? Join us in leading a growing national movement for free public higher education!

Want to get involved? Contact Organizer Athena Waid: awaid@aft2121.org

The Free City Initiative will:

Cover in-state tuition enrollment fees for City College of San Francisco students qualifying for in-state tuition who live in San Francisco
Offset educational costs like textbooks and transit for students with unmet financial aid needs
Expand the school-to-college pipeline—not the school-to-prison pipeline
Reverse alarming trends in student debt while helping to grow back and stabilize CCSF’s enrollment
Serve a diverse range of students with expanded educational access—from traditional college-age students to their neighbors, moms, and grand-moms!

Free City is publicly funded through a new luxury tax on high end property sales over $5 million that passed in November 2016. Increasing educational opportunities is a public responsibility and an investment in our future.

With skyrocketing housing prices in San Francisco, and high student debt, students often face choices between enrollment and rent, between textbooks and groceries. City College serves a diverse range of students, and many of them need additional financial aid. Now we have the opportunity to make City College enrollment fees free for all who live in San Francisco, and to provide additional help to offset educational costs such as textbooks and transportation for students who qualify.

San Francisco has the ability and responsibility to provide the economic support students need to succeed, recognizing that a more educated populace benefits all our communities.

Jump to Free City College Endorsements

Let’s defend our City by making City College FREE!

How does a plan to make City College of San Francisco free for San Francisco residents and workers align with the necessity of making the City more affordable and defending it as a place for all of us, especially working class families working to maintain a foothold while facing the fastest growing income gap in the country? Hear Supervisor Jane Kim spell it out:

At the 5/24/16 SF Board of Supervisors meeting, Kim announces that she looks forward to San Francisco being “the first in the nation to make [community college] free for all of our residents, putting us at the forefront of building more equity and affordability in this country.”

More about Free City: