Announcements & Commentary
New Research Shows College Pays Off in California. But It Must Work Better For More Californians.
By Amanda DeLaRosa, Director of Program & Strategy at College Futures Foundation
Californians believe in the promise of education after high school. We know that our paths to prosperity and stability are paved with the credentials, skills and networks gained through continued learning. And we know that our families, communities and the greater public good all benefit in both material and intangible ways from our postsecondary systems — everything from employment to entertainment, athletics to the arts, healthcare to higher earnings.
That’s all great news. And you don’t have to take my word for it. Our Golden Opportunities initiative has the receipts.
The latest report from California Competes’ Degrees of Value research series shows that college still provides value for most Californians. The research reveals that, across every region in California, the majority of those who earn a bachelor’s degree see a positive financial return within a decade and at least 70% of bachelor’s degree graduates see their degree pay off. At a moment when public discourse about postsecondary education twists and turns from good faith accountability critiques to toxic, agenda-driven attacks, the evidence still shows that education remains one of the most powerful vehicles for economic mobility we have.
But not all the news was sunny. The report points to regional disparities in positive ROI across race and ethnicity, gender and credential type. As we’ve noted before, “Californians want opportunity that unlocks long-term economic gains, but are not confident enough in the system to take that risk in the short term.”
The realities facing working learners have driven College Futures’ work on postsecondary value. Our north star is simple: the California postsecondary system must create more value, for more learners, in more places.
The Equity Imperative and Our Value Focus
When College Futures launched Golden Opportunities two years ago, we started with a simple hypothesis: the value of college is not experienced equitably across California because outcomes vary widely based on learner identity, geography, and credential type.
That led us to partner with California Competes to help research our hypothesis; and the research proved us right, revealing sharp disparities in how some Californians are experiencing the benefits of investing in a degree, credential or certificate compared to others. Namely, where you live shapes whether the promise of education actually pays off for you.
Graduates in coastal economic hubs – the Bay Area, Orange County, Los Angeles and San Diego – are more likely to experience strong economic returns than those in the Inland Empire or in more rural regions. This is unacceptable. It exposes the deep fissures of entrenched classism and faultlines of structural racism buried in and born from our education systems and labor markets. Postsecondary education is supposed to expand opportunity and unlock economic mobility. It should concern all of us to see such uneven distribution of the payoff of education.
Making Value Visible
At College Futures, the first phase of our Golden Opportunities value initiative focused on making value visible — bringing clearer insight into where postsecondary education is delivering economic mobility and where it is falling short.
Ensuring that visibility, particularly for learners, in turn demands transparency that drives improvement and accountability. The postsecondary sector itself must take responsibility for delivering value equitably to learners across California. This is a systems problem, not an individual one. So it demands a systemwide solution, not better PR spin to make learners think they’re getting more bang for their buck. Californians need their lived reality to match the rhetoric.
And progress is already being made.
We are heartened by the efforts from our partners at the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC). Their new dashboards help campus leaders identify where programs are delivering real value and where redesign is needed by pairing transparent earnings data with technical assistance for institutions.
Additionally, on-going efforts to strengthen California’s Cradle-to-Career data system are critical to this work by giving policymakers, institutions, and the public a clearer understanding of which pathways are truly delivering opportunity.
The community college dual value framework from our partners at Education Equity Solutions signals a deepening investigation into opportunity cliffs experienced by individuals and communities introducing a new set of considerations for policy makers, institutional leaders, and regional workforce development actors.
At College Futures, we are continuing to listen to learners as they tell us what it actually takes for education to deliver on its promise. Not just access. Not just completion. But a real return—one that leads to stability, opportunity, and the ability to build a life in California.
You will find me referring to the dual value framework often lately given the powerful clarity it offers a complex concept: not all credentials deliver the same value, and not all value is experienced the same way. It pushes us to ask harder questions about alignment between what learners pursue, what regions need, and whether those pathways lead to living-wage jobs and real opportunity. Dr. Dadgar offers a roadmap to ensure credential value is visible and viable. That’s where this work has to go.
We will keep doing what this moment demands: spotlighting what’s working, naming what isn’t, and pushing for a system that delivers real value for learners across California. There’s a lot of noise in this conversation. Our role is to cut through it—grounding the work in data, in lived experience, and in a clear expectation that postsecondary education should deliver more value, for more learners, in more places.
Because if we get this right, we don’t just improve outcomes. We rebuild the California Dream for everyone.
