Get good grades and your UC or CSU tuition would be free. That’s the thinking behind an initiative high school students in Oakland are working to qualify for the California ballot. Oakland Unity Senior Jocelyn Sanchez is one of the students gathering signatures. She says it started as a class project, but grew into something more. “The reality is we probably won’t get on the ballot, but we’re trying, and we’re trying to set an example. Trying to like, basically start a revolution. We’re trying to raise awareness that we believe that Californian higher educations would be free."
Under the measure, California resident college students would get free tuition and fees, as long as they maintained a 2.7 GPA or did 70 hours of community service a year. The benefit would be paid for by a new, higher income tax on Californians making more than $250,000 a year.
Sanchez says they need about one million signatures by June. So far they have about 2,000.
