A bill that would automatically admit all eligible high school graduates to California State University campuses has cleared its first hurdle. Senate Bill 640 passed the Senate Education Committee and is headed to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The bill is modeled after West Sacramento’s Home Run program, started by Sen. Christopher Cabaldon, when he was the city’s mayor, according to a press release from Cabaldon’s office. The program admits all high school seniors to Sacramento City College tuition free.
The legislation also would expand a California State University program that offers qualified seniors in Riverside County admission to 10 CSU campuses.
“Tens of thousands of California students are fully qualified to go to CSU, but don’t jump the hurdles of the admission process,” Cabaldon said. “At the same time, many CSUs are seeing precipitous declines in enrollment and need more students to sustain their high quality academic programs. High schools and community colleges have the transcript information they need in order to validate that a graduating student is CSU-admissible. Getting an acceptance letter will nudge thousands more to attend and help the CSU system as a whole.”