La Voz

This holiday season, students in California's 109 community college received a gift: a 23 percent drop in tuition. Instead of paying $26 per unit, per semester on average, they now pay $20. For De Anza College students that meant a fee decrease from $17 to $13 per unit. This is because De Anza is on the quarter system.

Tuition decreases occurred upon the signing of Assembly Bill 1802. The fee decrease is an effort that will help students receive fi nancial aid. "Every school is advertising that college is now cheaper. The intent is to bring students back," said Nancy Chao of the payroll department.

Since 2003, tuition rose in most colleges from $11 to $26. Throughout the state, educators have seen effects that this has had on students.

One of the biggest effects was enrollment decrease. Jonathan Lightman, executive director of the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges, said the system lost 175,000 students when tuition rose from $11 to $18.

For De Anza students, the cost increase is more noticeable due to the "Pay to Stay" policy.

"If we don't educate these folks, they're going to end up in the service industry. They're not going to end up with jobs that are going to feed a family, purchase a house and produce tax revenue." Lightman said.

"So what's $6 a unit to the state? We've got to go out and education the population."

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