OUR POLICY AGENDA
SoCal CAN advocates at the local, state and national levels for policies that increase college access and completion for underrepresented students.
Advocacy Overview
While the arrival of the global pandemic has significantly shifted the way higher education operates, the issues our students face as they navigate college during COVID-19 haven’t. Financial pressures, the digital divide, the rise in anxiety and depression, and the persistent racial inequities existed long before the pandemic; they have only been exacerbated by it. Now, more than ever, the college access field is being called to stand with our students and families and demand change.
This page summarizes our policy agenda for 2021-2022. Our network has identified four priority areas we’re seeking to influence in the years to come: college affordability, student well being, racial equity in higher ed, and support for undocumented students. SoCal CAN will continue to engage our member organizations, students, parents, and community members in key higher-education policy discussions on these topics at the institutional, state, and federal levels. We look forward to your partnership and collaboration to help us undertake the responsibility of shaping the future of higher education in California. Click on any of our four policy agenda goals to learn more!
SoCal CAN Changemakers Fellow Yvette Hernandez provides witness testimony during the Senate Education Committee hearing. Yvette shared her story with scholarship displacement and encouraged policymakers to support AB 288. View her testimony by clicking on the picture above.
Bill Spotlight: AB 288
In 2021-22, SoCal CAN co-sponsored the CA Ban on Scholarship Displacement with the Northern California College Promise Coalition and Scholarship America. California became the 5th state in the nation to pass a ban on scholarship displacement. Commencing with the 2023-24 academic year, AB 288 prohibits all public and private institutions of higher education in California that receive, or benefit from, state-funded financial assistance, or that enroll students who receive state-funded student financial assistance, from reducing the institutional gift aid offer of a student who is eligible to receive a federal Pell Grant award or financial assistance under the California Dream Act as a result of receiving private scholarship awards.