Golden Returns: A Regional Look at the ROI of California’s Community and Career Colleges

At College Futures Foundation, our aim is simple: create more value for more learners in more places. But for too long, learners have been navigating postsecondary education without clear, accessible information about which options will lead to real economic mobility.

To help change that, we have partnered with Michael Itzkowitz and the HEA Group once again, this time to launch Golden Returns: A Regional Look at the Return on Investment (ROI) of California’s Community and Career Colleges. This new analysis ranks 327 community colleges and certificate-granting institutions across 12 of California’s economic regions by how long it takes learners to recoup their educational costs.

The results are both encouraging and urgent. Some public institutions are delivering exceptional value, enabling learners to see a return on their investment in under six months. Yet regional disparities are stark, and far too many institutions are offering learners little to no economic ROI at all.

“The value of this analysis lies not only in the stories it reveals about which institutions are driving economic mobility and which are falling short, but also in how those findings are used,” said Eloy Ortiz Oakley, College Futures Foundation President & CEO. “As accountability takes center stage under the new federal framework, colleges must absorb this data and act on it to improve outcomes and deliver real return on investment for the learners they serve.”

We hope this data will be used to ask hard questions and spark necessary change. Together, we can ensure that postsecondary education in California truly delivers on its promise and provides real value and real opportunity to every learner, in every region.