RE: It should be free

I have been waiting for Question #3 (regarding fees and financial aid) to be posted before joining this discussion, but Bill Pickens notes lead me to make a quick addition to his comments.

Community Colleges have NEVER been free; education is never free.  A state can decide (at enormous cost) to subsidize all costs that are normally paid by tuition and fees but that does not provide free education.  Students must pay for books, supplies, transportation, clothing, medical needs, and must face significant foregone revenue if they make a commitment to full-time progress.  

For decades California touted a supposedly "FREE" community college system and by doing so it devalued the student aid offices in those colleges, lost millions (or more) in federal revenue, failed to educate students on application procedures and provided a misleading outreach message.  Let's not go back there.   It's time for a thoughtful analysis of the financing structure of community colleges in California.  

Note:  As with all of us in this open discussion...I do not necessarily represent the views of my agency (although I think we all agree it's time for an analysis of these questions).