San Francisco is one of the most expensive places in the country but if you’re fortunate enough to live there, you’re now entitled to a college education free of charge. On Tuesday, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee announced that city residents would no longer have to pay to attend their local community college. The tuition will instead be paid through a transfer tax on properties sold for at least $5 million, which was approved by voters in November in the form of Measure W.
Under the “historic” deal, San Francisco will provide $2.1 million or 45,000 academic credits for City College. Low-income individuals will also receive stipends for books and other school-related expenses. To be eligible, students must have lived in the city for at least one year.
City and school officials are hoping the program will boost the city college’s anemic enrollment numbers. The school suffered an accreditation crisis in 2012 and has been struggling to get bodies in the seats ever since.
The free college movement has exploded in recent years, thanks to a growing emphasis on higher education, mushrooming student loans, and popularization of the issue by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. New York has struggled to implement its own free tuition plan. Rhode Island is also flirting with the idea.