This report focuses specifically on the hidden and unspoken costs of college, and the communities that are placed at a disadvantage.The report specifically talks about the longer students are enrolled in college, the more they will pay for tuition, fees, living expenses, books, and other education-related expenses, and the loss of time results in loss of overall money and wages.
Students also forgo potential wages they could have been earning because they are still in school and not in the workforce. And when students are enrolled for longer periods of time, there is less space at the colleges for new students, thus accelerating the trend of extending the time it takes most students to earn a degree.
The majority of students who earn their degrees from California’s community colleges and the California State University system are taking longer than two and four years, respectively, to do so. Each report calls for reducing the number of years it takes for students to earn a degree, which would in turn decrease costs and increase capacity at California’s public college and universities.
To read the full report, please click here.