Protect a golden opportunity for students and our future

Allison Yin for EdSource

Imagine every young person throughout California, flourishing and ready to fulfill their promise. Imagine our state’s communities and economy, teeming with fresh talent and perspective.

As leaders of three California organizations with deep experience in what works to accelerate students on the path to college and career success, we’re here to tell you it can happen. We’re also determined to make sure it does. As the Legislature considers ways to balance the budget, it should not come at the expense of a critical investment: The Golden State Pathways program is a $500 million investment in college and career pathways that prepare students to graduate from high school ready for college, and with skills required to fuel our state’s economy.

This is a golden opportunity, and the time to act is now. The last few years have been brutal. Our economic systems are still reeling from pandemic disruptions, inflation and labor shortages. Our educational systems are also in deep struggle, with chronic absenteeism on the rise and college enrollment in decline. Meanwhile, our students are seriously suffering. The U.S. surgeon general has called mental health the defining public health crisis of our times — and one that is acute for adolescents in critical years of their development. Indeed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest Youth Risk Behavior Survey shows persistent sadness and hopelessness among American adolescents. Providing students with a clear path to achieve their college and career ambitions is one way the state can help.

Golden State Pathways is smart enough and big enough to turn this tide. It builds on key K–12 and college policy reforms already at work on student success, including dual enrollment, Guided Pathways and the California Career Pathways Trust. It is designed to complement the ambitious college completion goals that the governor and the postsecondary systems agreed upon in last year’s Compacts and Roadmap and would provide the resources K-12 districts need to play their role in building aligned pathways. And it provides proven value — applying the Linked Learning approach, which integrates rigorous academics and career technical studies, work-based learning, comprehensive student supports, and accelerated college opportunities to make learning relevant and engaging. More than a decade of practice and research shows how high-quality learning experiences like these can prepare all students for success in college and career — particularly among Black, Latino, Indigenous and low-income populations long denied real access to education and economic justice.

In California today, such opportunities are not widely available. But they should be, and they can be through Golden State Pathways.

Golden State Pathways would replace exactly what’s hurting us most right now with exactly what can help us most in the future. It provides the connection that adolescent minds seek and need to thrive — to caring adults in the classroom and the workplace, and between academic learning and the world of work. Its integrated supports, from homework help to counseling, care for the whole student.

At the same time, the program would expand college access and success, especially for groups that have been unrepresented in higher education for far too long. Participating schools and districts must provide students the opportunity to complete at least 12 postsecondary credits through accelerated learning programs. Dual enrollment programs offer an effective strategy to do this because they are known to improve high school graduation, college enrollment and degree completion rates for students across racial and socioeconomic groups while accelerating time to degree.

You can see it happening in real time through the Long Beach College Promise. A partnership between the local school district, community college and CSU campus creates seamless learning pathways to college and career. Elementary students tour colleges. College readiness work starts in middle school. Students take college classes while still in high school through dual enrollment. Many qualify for guaranteed admission or a tuition-free first year. This earnest, impressive bid to raise education levels across a region is worth replicating.

And finally, Golden State Pathways invigorates our talent pipeline. Not only by giving more students a real shot at getting to and through college, but also because it funds schools and districts to build career-focused pathways that prepare students to thrive in high-growth, labor-short fields like technology and education, climate, and health.

It’s already happening at the Huntington Park Institute of Applied Medicine at Linda Esperanza Marquez High School. This Los Angeles school partners with local hospitals and biomedical research facilities to provide students with hands-on learning and internships, opening doors to community-based experiences and careers.

Now just imagine multiplying this potential across our state. We can — and we will if the governor and Legislature reject any proposal to cut the Golden State Pathways program promised to our students. Yes, it’s a big commitment, but it’s one we cannot afford to break.

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Anne Stanton is president and CEO of the Linked Learning Alliance, a nonprofit organization that advocates for high-quality college and career preparation through pathways.

Linda Collins is founder and executive director of Career Ladders Project, a research and policy organization that promotes equity-minded community college redesign.

Christopher J. Nellum is executive director of The Education Trust–West, a statewide research, policy and advocacy organization focusing on educational justice and closing achievement and opportunity gaps for underserved students, especially students from lower-income communities.

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