Thousands of adult Californians without a high school diploma want to take college classes. Unfortunately, those classes aren’t free, and the lack of a high school diploma cuts off access to most financial aid.

The good news is, there’s a fix. The bad news is most students don’t know about the fix, and most college officials don’t understand the laws surrounding it.

Federal law has a special clause that allows students lacking a high school diploma to access financial aid money they would otherwise miss. Known as the Ability to Benefit, the provision opens up federal financial aid to adults without high school degrees who enroll in GED and college classes simultaneously.

California community colleges also stand to benefit financially from the law because it could allow schools to boost enrollment and the number of students on federal aid, both of which are tied to the state’s new college funding formula.

More than 4 million Californians lack a high school degree and roughly 340,000 of those adults were taking some form of adult education in 2021, according to the California Community College Chancellor’s office.

At least that many adults could be eligible for this federal aid, but in 2016, just shy of 58,000 students in California actually received federal grants or loans associated with it. The numbers have dropped every year since, and in 2021, just more than 30,000 California students participated, according to the U.S. Department of Education. That means as many as 90% of eligible adult students weren’t taking advantage of this aid.

The decline is the result of a complicated balancing act. On the one hand, the federal government has noted a history of poor oversight and “abuse” of Ability to Benefit, especially by for-profit colleges. On the other hand, more regulation has left community colleges feeling confused and uninformed.

Still, Bradley Custer, a senior policy analyst for higher education at the Center for American Progress, said use of the aid has room to grow.

“There’s no compelling reason why we couldn’t at least get back to 2016 and prior enrollment,” he said.

Locked out of loans and grants

In California, community college tuition is free for qualifying low-income students who apply, but even for those who get the fee waiver, it’s just a fraction of the many costs related to attending college. Textbooks, transportation, and food add an average of roughly $12,000 a year.

That’s why the federal government offers flexible aid for college students — and through Ability to Benefit, adults without high school degrees can access that money, too. A federal Pell grant, for instance, currently provides as much as $6,895 a year for qualifying students, money that can be spent on things like childcare or rent.

Joe Villa, 67, needs that money. He has six children from two marriages, no high school diploma, and a criminal record that makes even a simple job interview challenging. But he won’t give up.

While serving a 10-year sentence at High Desert State Prison in Susanville, Villa attempted to get his GED, but the program closed before he could finish.

Then in 2019, Villa was standing beside a prison employee when another inmate charged at the two of them. Villa intervened, saving the employee’s life. Gov. Gavin Newsom commuted Villa’s sentence, and he was released in April 2020 — just weeks after the state locked down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There was no employment because of COVID, and I’m thinking, perhaps this is the best time to re-educate myself and get my degree,” he said. Through Saddleback Community College in Mission Viejo, Villa promptly enrolled in both a GED program and a number of college classes. CalMatters found Villa through a Saddleback administrator reference.

He tried to apply for federal student aid, but didn’t get far since he doesn’t have a high school diploma and didn’t know about the Ability to Benefit provision.

Qualifying for the Ability to Benefit exception is not easy. A student must first enroll in a program to obtain their high school degree or equivalent and take six credits of college courses. Alternatively, they can pass a special exam.

Finally, students who want the federal dollars must receive certain kinds of counseling support and can only take a certain set of courses, as interpreted by their college.

Villa checks nearly every box. He is currently enrolled in both a GED class and has already taken more than six credits worth of courses at Saddleback in the hope of getting his associates degree and then transferring to four-year university to study cinematography.

But as of 2020, Saddleback College no longer offers students aid through Ability to Benefit.

Fixing a ‘scam,’ facing consequences

It’s a trend, said Judy Mortrude, senior technical advisor at the National College Transition Network of World Education, Inc., a Boston-based nonprofit that helps community colleges.

In 1991, Congress put Ability to Benefit into the law and slowly added regulations that explained how students could qualify, like through an exam or by taking six credits. In 2012, Congress cut the funding, only to restore it fully in 2016. Then Congress required that colleges offer counseling and career training to these students and that they restrict them to a certain set of classes and majors that align with the local economy.

Whereas the original rule had only been about the student’s eligibility, the 2016 regulations asked colleges to perform certain services, and colleges didn’t know how to interpret it, Mortrude said.

“The chain of communication is poor,” said Naomi Castro, a senior director with the Career Ladders Projects, a nonprofit research group founded by the California Community Colleges Board of Governors. She said that many financial aid directors at community colleges didn’t even know that Congress restarted the program in 2016.

Saddleback allowed students who enrolled prior to 2012 to get aid at any point, since they qualified through the old law, but the college never implemented the 2016 regulations, meaning students such as Villa have yet to benefit.

Saddleback College in Mission Viejo on April 11, 2023. Photo by Lauren Justice for CalMatters

The challenge, said Karima Feldhus, an academic administrator at Saddleback, is that the college lacks “an eligible list of careers” according to the 2016 regulations. As to why the college waited years to adopt the regulations , she said she didn’t know and referred CalMatters to the director of the financial aid office and the dean of enrollment. Neither person responded to requests for comment.

Nor did San Jose City College implement Ability to Benefit when it restarted in 2016, according to Takeo Kubo, the financial aid director.

San Jose City College spokesperson Daniel Garza said the 2016 law required “significant curriculum development efforts,” which he noted can be “quite an undertaking” at any school. He said he was not aware of what efforts the college made to consider making the necessary curriculum changes when the new regulations came out.

Some community colleges, including the four Sacramento-area ones in the Los Rios Community College District, did adapt to the new regulations. Those colleges currently have 42 students who receive aid through Ability to Benefit out of a total of 780 students in the system without a high school diploma.

While community colleges have increasingly shied away from Ability to Benefit over the years, for-profit colleges have leaned in.

Nationally, participation at public and private nonprofit colleges has dropped by more than half since 2016 while usage at private for-profit schools has risen, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Education. The department did not respond to requests for recent statewide data.

For-profit and nonprofit use different processes, too. The department data shows public and private nonprofit colleges generally have students qualify for Ability to Benefit by taking six credits worth of classes. At for-profit colleges, nearly every student qualifies for it through an exam.

“It’s sort of a scam how they are getting bucket loads of people to hit a cut score on an exam who somehow couldn’t pass the GED test,” said Mortrude.

The department created many of the new regulations to clamp down on such “predatory behavior,” she said.

A third way

While students generally qualify for Ability to Benefit through the two national pathways, federal law also allows states to develop their own processes.

In 2019, Mortrude, Castro, and other college leaders sent a proposal to the Community College Chancellor’s Office on how California could set its own such process. Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Mississippi, Washington and Wisconsin have already done it.

In Wisconsin, for example, adult students at some technical colleges can qualify for aid by participating in an orientation and by working with a tutor or academic counselor, among other criteria.

The individual community colleges are responsible for implementing the Ability to Benefit provision for students, said Paul Feist, a vice chancellor for the California Community College Chancellor’s Office, in a statement.

He said the office will explore creating a “state defined process” akin to what other states have done. The office did not provide a timeline for a new state process.

This month, a committee of Saddleback administrators came together to figure out the federal regulations with the goal of offering the Ability to Benefit aid this fall.

If they succeed, Villa has a list of expenses he hopes his aid can cover. First, he’s late on child support payments. He wants a new apartment and after putting on some weight during the COVID pandemic, he needs new clothes that fit.

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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

Harvey Baird peacefully entered into rest on April 10, 2023, surrounded by his loving family, after a short illness.

Harvey was born in Rohnerville to Harvey Baird Sr. and Beryl Godfrey Baird, the third child and only son of their six children. Harvey was a lifelong resident of Humboldt County, remaining in the Rohnerville/Fortuna area his entire life. He never wanted to live anywhere else.

Harvey worked in the woods and various sawmills in his early years while raising his family, often working multiple jobs at the same time. He made lots of friends and shared plenty of laughs with his quick wit and unique sense of humor. In the early 1970s he and Sue purchased The Old West Trading Post at the junction of Highways 36 and 101 in Alton, turning it into “Harvey’s,” a jumping dance bar that served the best pizza for miles around.

Although he loved the music and social life of being a bar owner, he made the decision to change occupations. Harvey discovered he was a very creative wood worker. He made beautiful clocks, furniture and chain saw carvings. He loved using redwood and driftwood for many of his projects. That’s how Harvey’s bar became The Old West Trading Post again. He met people from all over the world, remaining friends with many until his death. Harvey never knew a stranger.

Harvey was an avid outdoorsman. There wasn’t much he enjoyed more than hunting, fishing and diving for abalone, unless it was listening to his three sons play their guitars. His best friend and hunting partner was his son Colley. They had numerous friends and hunting partners along the way and enjoyed all the trips they took together.

Harvey is survived by four children from his first marriage to Fame Thornbury — sons Jesse, Colley (Phyllis), Griff (Wanda) Baird and last but not least, daughter Tana (Jerry) Bryan. He had 15 grandchildren, 35 great grandchildren with one on the way, 18 great-great grandchildren with two on the way, sisters Jackie Winsby, Loyce Stovall and Gloria Cottrell as well as his beloved dogs Duke and Piglet.

In 1971 Harvey married Sue Oester, the love of his life. They had a wonderful 44 plus years together. Sue had two daughters, Rhonda Meehan and Debi August, and a son, Jim Oester, that preceded her in death. His marriage to Sue increased his already impressive total of children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Harvey was preceded in death by his parents Harvey Sr. and Beryl, sisters Beverly and Marilyn and his precious wife Sue in 2015.

Harvey will always be remembered for his sense of humor, generosity and willingness to help others. He was truly a good Samaritan. We will all miss his infectious laughter and endless stream of jokes.

There will be a private burial for Harvey on April 13, 2023. A memorial service will be held on April 22, 2023 at 1 p.m. at the Calvary Chapel located at 914 9th St. Fortuna. All friends and family are welcome to attend and share stories and memories of Harvey. Refreshments will be served.

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HUMBOLDT TODAY: A pool in Arcata has been filled to provide better shelter to the city’s unhoused; Del Norte’s Juvenile Hall has closed and leaders are trying to figure out what to do with young offenders; plus, Redwood Acres Racing is back! Those stories and more in today’s newscast with John Kennedy O’Connor.

FURTHER READING: 

• Arcata Planning Commission Keeps Proposal to Make K and L Into One-Way Streets on the Table, Looks at Other Short-Term Options to Improve K Street
• McGuire Legislation to Speed Up Offshore Wind Development Clears Natural Resources Committee, Senator’s Office Announces

HUMBOLDT TODAY can be viewed on LoCO’s homepage each night starting at 6 p.m.

Want to LISTEN to HUMBOLDT TODAY? Subscribe to the podcast version here.

Press release from the Arcata Police Department:

On April 15, 2017, six years ago this week, Humboldt State University sophomore student David Josiah Lawson was stabbed to death while attending a house party on Spear Avenue in Arcata. The criminal investigation remains open. Investigators from the Arcata Police Department continue to actively pursue tips and leads that could ultimately lead to this case being presented again in court.

Less than half of the 100 plus people who were reportedly in attendance at the party have been identified and interviewed by investigators. Witness accounts are essential to moving this case forward either by corroborating known information or in the development of new leads. While some may be reluctant to come forward it is imperative that they contact investigators in order to be heard and in the interest of fact-finding. Witnesses who have not yet been interviewed may have information that is critical in the furtherance of this criminal investigation.

Anyone who was present at the house party or who has information regarding who was present or what occurred that led to the stabbing of Josiah is asked to call the Arcata Police Department at (707) 822-2424 or APD’s 24-hour confidential tip-line at (707) 825-2590.

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PREVIOUSLY:

• ARCATA’S GATEWAY AREA PLAN: Arcata City Council and Planning Commission Joint Study Session Tonight; Maximum Building Heights May be Set
• What’s Next for Arcata’s Gateway Area Plan? Community Development Director Offers Clarification on Results of Recent Study Session
• How’s Arcata Doing on Meeting its Housing Goals, And Should it Make K Street Traffic One-Way? Those Will be Some of the Questions Addressed at Tonight’s Planning Commission Meeting

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During its Tuesday night meeting, which focused on recommendations on Arcata’s General Plan Updates, the Arcata Planning Commission agreed that K Street is kind of a mess. It has lots of car traffic, no bike lanes, too much parking and not big enough sidewalks. But exactly how to address that mess was something the commission was a little less clear on. 

One proposed option the city has been looking at for a few years is the controversial K-L Couplet – a proposed plan to extend L Street from Alliance Road to Samoa Boulevard and convert L and K Streets to one-way traffic. City staff and the Arcata City Council are in support of the couplet plan, saying that it will be necessary to accommodate the growth that will go along with the Gateway Area Plan and the most effective way to improve bike and pedestrian safety. 

But Arcata’s Transportation and Safety Committee has made recommendations against the proposal, and some community members have voiced concerns over the couplet urging the commission and council to instead support the plan for an L Street Linear parkway – which would block L Street off from car traffic entirely, making it only accessible by bike and foot. 

One community member, Alex, told the commission that he is not in support of the two street couplet  because of the traffic and noise pollution it would cause in the neighborhood. “Everyone loves L street as it is right now, but it’s a really quiet area right now,” he said during Tuesday’s meeting. “Making it a new thoroughfare for a newly developed area is going to make it decidedly less pleasant.” 

With the mixed reception of the couplet proposal, the planning commission was asked to make a recommendation on whether the proposal should be removed from consideration, or if it is something the commission would like to keep in the City’s General Plan as a means to address traffic and safety concerns in the coming years. Though the commission members took no formal action, they took a straw poll indicating that four members would like to see the couplet kept in the plan and two members would like it to be removed. 

But even with the couplet proposal left in the city’s general plan, it will not be happening any time soon. David Loya, Arcata’s community development director, said that the couplet plan “probably won’t happen for 20 years.”  The planning commission agreed that something will need to be done to address the issues on K Street in the nearer future. 

In case you are not super-familiar with traveling through Arcata, K Street is a popular thoroughfare, connecting Alliance Road to Samoa Boulevard, and is lined with many residences and businesses. Though the street is marked as a “bike boulevard,” there are no separate bike lanes and many feel that the street is not safe for cyclists or pedestrians. City Engineer Netra Khatri showed the commission some of the alternative plans for improving K Street in the interim, including proposals to add marked bike lanes, remove one or both parking lanes and even to potentially add a two-way turning lane in the middle of the street. 

The “most viable option” Khatri said, was Option A, which would remove one parking lane on the west side of K Street and add two marked bike lanes, with one parking lane maintained on the east side of the street. Again, no formal action was taken by the commission, but the majority of the commission members did seem to support this option. Some members also supported the option to remove parking from the street entirely. It’s not clear when any of these options will be brought forward for formal action, but it was clear that city staff will continue to work toward planning for K Street improvements and that the item will be brought forward for consideration in the future. 

The commission was also slated to recommend approval of the General Plan Annual Progress Report, something that must be submitted to the state annually to show how well the jurisdiction is doing at meeting its housing goals. But city staff realized that the report contained some errors that needed to be corrected, and requested that the commission move this item to its next meeting on April 25.

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PREVIOUSLY:

• California’s Aging Electrical Infrastructure Presents Hurdle for Offshore Wind Development on the North Coast

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Press release from the office of Sen. Mike McGuire:

Senate Majority Leader Mike McGuire’s ground-breaking legislation to expedite offshore wind development to help meet the Golden State’s long-term electricity demand and extraordinary climate goals passed Tuesday with bipartisan support in the Senate Natural Resources Committee.

“If we’re serious about bringing on desperately needed new power generation facilities and meeting the state’s nation-leading climate goals and energy needs – we must move heaven and earth to deploy new green power. This bill will expedite the state-side offshore wind permitting process eliminating 3 years off of the permitting timeline all while protecting California’s coastal environment and storied fishing fleet, it will deploy resources for offshore wind infrastructure in local communities and help get folks to work through new career training programs,” Senate Majority Leader Mike McGuire said.

SB 286 – the Offshore Wind Expediting Act – will accelerate the state-side offshore wind permitting process through the State Coastal Commission and State Land Commission. At the same time, it will ensure environmental safeguards will remain in place, California’s storied fishing fleet interests are protected, and the bill will advance resources that benefit communities and develop family-sustaining careers through workforce education programs.

In addition to desperately needed streamlining, this bill also mandates state agencies and key stakeholders come together to collaborate and develop the long-term game plan to deploy offshore wind infrastructure.

SB 286 requires the Coastal Commission to bring the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the State Lands Commission, the Ocean Protection Council, representatives from the commercial fishing industry, representatives from the offshore wind industry, federal agencies, labor, Native American tribes and other stakeholders together over the next two years. This stakeholder group will create a statewide standard to ensure offshore wind development is expedited and will develop data-driven strategies to avoid and minimize impacts to ocean fisheries and to the maximum extent possible, mitigate for unavoidable impacts.

SB 286 was approved by a 9-0 vote in Senate Natural Resources Committee and will be heard next in the Senate Energy Committee.

Closely mirroring California’s landmark mandate, the Biden administration today proposed new greenhouse gas emission standards that will scale up sales of electric cars and trucks nationwide.

If enacted, the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed standards would be among the most stringent and aggressive measures the federal agency has ever taken to slash planet-warming tailpipe pollution, clean up dirty air and tackle climate change.

“We have reestablished the United States as a leader in the clean transportation future,” Ali Zaidi, deputy national climate advisor to President Joe Biden, said Tuesday. “This is a moment of transformation.”

The proposed regulation comes almost eight months after California set its own, more aggressive standards mandating sales of electric cars.

Unlike California’s mandate, the EPA standards would not require that zero-emission vehicles make up a percentage of sales. Rather, the total fleet that an automaker sells each year would have to comply with an overall emissions standard, forcing them to produce enough electric vehicles to avoid surpassing it.

EPA officials calculate that their proposal would require between 54% and 60% of sales of 2030 models and 67% of 2032 models to be zero-emissions. In comparison, the California mandate, adopted last August by the Air Resources Board, requires 35% of new 2026 cars sold in California to be zero-emissions, increasing to 68% in 2030, until reaching 100% in 2035.

About 19% of new cars sold in California last year were zero-emissions.

“The California Air Resources Board looks forward to providing comments on the proposal and working with the U.S. EPA to finalize the strongest rules possible as we pave the way together for continued progress on our efforts to improve air quality and reduce the impacts of climate change in California and beyond,” air board Chair Liane Randolph said in a statement.

California has aggressively cleaned up car and truck exhaust with its own emissions standards for more than half a century, and it has been leading the way in recent years in electrifying cars.

The EPA’s new standards would have no effect on California car sales, since the state has authority under the 1970 federal Clean Air Act to enact its own emission standards because of its severe air pollution. At least 17 states have pledged to enact California’s standards rather than EPA’s. But a nationwide standard will help clean California’s air and cut greenhouse gases by regulating emissions of cars purchased in other states.

The auto industry is already moving to meet California’s requirements by producing more electric vehicles. General Motors, for example, had already pledged to go fully electric by 2035.

But auto manufacturers say they’re being pushed too fast to adhere to these sweeping new mandates.

“The vehicles are in production and automakers are committed to making this shift,” according to a memo from the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents the auto industry. “The question isn’t whether it can be done, it’s how fast it can be done and how fast will depend almost exclusively on having the right policies and market conditions in place to achieve the shared goal of a net zero carbon automotive future.”

Charging availability also remains a concern. The lack of public charging “raises serious questions” about ensuring that the transition to electric vehicles is equitable, according to the memo.

California faces a daunting task to electrify all cars because of the comparatively high costs, inadequate charging facilities and other obstacles for low-income residents. A CalMatters analysis shows that communities with mostly white and Asian, college-educated and high-income residents have the state’s highest concentrations of electric cars. And most are concentrated in Silicon Valley cities and affluent coastal areas of Los Angeles and Orange counties.

In stark contrast, California ZIP codes with the largest percentages of Latino and Black residents have extremely low proportions of electric cars. In the 20 California ZIP codes where Latinos make up more than 95% of the population — including parts of Kings, Tulare, Fresno, Riverside and Imperial counties — between zero and 1% of cars are electric. And 17 of the 20 communities with the highest percentage of Blacks have between zero and 2.6% electric cars.

Concerns also have been raised about whether California’s electric grid can handle the ramp-up of electric cars while avoiding brownouts. Despite expecting 12.5 million electric cars by 2035, California officials insist that the grid can provide enough electricity. But that’s based on multiple assumptions — including building solar and wind at almost five times the pace of the past decade — that may not be realistic.

“The question isn’t whether it can be done, it’s how fast it can be done.”
— The Alliance for Automotive Innovation

The average price of an electric car as of February was $58,385 — about $9,600 more than the average car — although it dropped from about $65,000 last year. Lower-end fully electric cars start around $27,500.

Medium and heavy-duty trucks would also be regulated by the EPA’s new standards. Limits for medium-duty trucks would require an estimated 46% of new 2032 models sold nationwide to be zero-emissions. California also is proposing to ramp up electrification of medium and heavy-duty trucks under a plan coming before the air board later this month.

The EPA’s proposed rules build on existing federal standards for 2023 to 2026 model years.

Over the past eight years, automakers have invested more than $120 billion in electric vehicle production and battery manufacturing facilities across the U.S, according to a report from the Environmental Defense Fund released in March. Federal dollars have largely helped fund these investments: At least 42% have occurred in the past six months due to incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act.

“We have already seen the market moving in really powerful ways in response to the incentives that are included in the Inflation Reduction Act, in response to California’s leadership and changes in consumer demand,” said Peter Zalzal, associate vice president for clean air strategies at the Environmental Defense Fund. “This is an opportunity to build from California’s leadership and to ensure that communities all around the country benefit from zero-emitting solutions in terms of health and air quality benefits.”

Matt Peterson, CEO of the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator, a business group that is working to get 80% of cars sold in Los Angeles County to be electric by 2028, said their effort is “now given big tailwinds by the EPA’s new rules.”

“We have already seen the market moving in really powerful ways in response to…California’s leadership and changes in consumer demand.”
— Peter Zalzal, Environmental Defense Fund

The proposed rules extend beyond Biden’s goal for half of all new vehicle sales to be electric by 2030, Zaidi said.

Through 2055, federal officials estimate the proposed standards could eliminate about 10 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions from being spewed into the atmosphere — equivalent to more than twice of the nation’s total carbon emissions in 2022.

“In every corner of this country, Americans are seeing and feeling the impacts (of climate change) up close,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said. “The stakes could not be higher. We must continue to act with haste and ambition to confront the climate crisis.”

The EPA will accept public comments on its proposal for 60 days, then issue its final regulation.

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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.