Lande Ajose said parents want to know if their children can get into college, afford it and “get out in a reasonable amount of time so they can start the rest of their lives and not be burdened by debt.”
Lupita Cortez Alcalá, executive director of the California Student Aid Commission, will return to the state's department of education where she held key positions for a dozen years.
California community college leaders want to remove restrictions that keep hundreds of thousands of students from receiving the Cal Grant by basing the size of the grant on the total cost of college attendance.
The upcoming survey by the California Student Aid Commission will be the first of its scope since 2006. It will seek information from about 100,000 students in all the public and private higher education sectors about housing, food, books, transportation, technology and other costs. Officials hope it could lead to improved financial aid.
About 56 percent of California high school seniors applied for federal or state financial aid for college. The new dashboard aims to increase that number and allow schools to compare their statistics to other schools around California.
The final application numbers top last year's by 5 percent after much publicity and pledges that personal data will not be shared with federal authorities.
