California makes the first year of community college free

Santa Monica College photo credit: Wikipedia commons

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (FOX 11 / AP) - The first year of community college will be free for thousands of California students under a bill signed by Gov. Jerry Brown.

The signing announced Friday creates the “California College Promise” program.

It waives course fees for a student’s first year of classes. Students must apply for the fee waiver and take at least 12 credits per semester.

Each unit now costs $46.

The community college system estimates 19,000 students would be eligible for the fee waiver, which will cost the state about $31 million annually.

Roughly 1.6 million of the system’s 2.3 million students already receive other financial aid.