San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee announced this week that San Francisco’s residents will have the right to free higher education at city college.
San Francisco will guarantee nearly $5.4 million a year to City College to pay for the tuition of students who reside in San Francisco. In order to qualify as a resident, a student must live in the city for at least a year and a day. They can either be part-time or full-time students.
The money will come from an increase in the real estate transfer tax for commercial and residential properties valued at more than $5 million.
Officials believe that this will benefit around 30,000 SF residents. This is, of course, very good news. The fact of the matter is that with the extraordinary real estate market and wildly unaffordable rents in the Bay Area, earmarking tax money towards free higher education is an idea that will hopefully catch on.