TEST: College Access for All

Dear Mayor de Blasio and Speaker Johnson,

As the City's partners in the College Access for All (CA4A) initiative, we write to you with deep concerns regarding the implications of the recent $49 million program to eliminate the gap (PEG). As you know, nearly one in four students in New York City do not enroll in college or other postsecondary opportunities following high school graduation. The Department of Education's CA4A initiative aims to provide every New York City student with the necessary resources to create a college-and-career readiness strategy to ensure postsecondary success. CA4A is supported by 163 vendors who partner with hundreds of New York City Middle Schools and High Schools, serving hundreds of thousands of students each year. As CA4A vendors, our services have resulted in a 12% increase in college enrollment (62% for the class of 2018 compared to 50% when Mayor de Blasio took office), as well as the highest-ever college readiness rate – 54.9% of all students and 70.7% of class of 2019 graduates.

With the COVID-19 crisis's impact on student learning, CA4A is needed now more than ever to continue guiding our students down pathways for postsecondary success. With schools currently closed, our students have lost daily structure, stability, and in-person college readiness programming. To meet our students' urgent education and college access needs during this unprecedented time, we are continuing our programming virtually. Throughout the remainder of the COVID-19 crisis, we are meeting our students' most urgent needs by continuing our work in college access via online college counseling and other virtual programming; liaising between students and college admissions offices for acceptance, financial aid, and enrollment conversations; and preparing juniors to complete the necessary steps to be ready to apply to college in the fall. Even with these unprecedented challenges, our counselors and program staff remain accessible and provide individualized support to their students. Our charge is even more urgent now that there is so much uncertainty facing our students and their families, who are at the epicenter and disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 crisis.

Eliminating CA4A from the FY20 and upcoming FY21 budgets will have detrimental consequences for New York City's students. Without continued funding, we will be unable to provide the same level of support to schools to build a college-and-career-ready culture, contribute to postsecondary planning teams, provide professional learning, and help schools align their resources with postsecondary success goals. Most critically, budget cuts to CA4A will result in the elimination of college counselors from our partner middle schools and high schools, college campus tours, and guidance and resources for standardized college admission preparation and testing, college applications, financial aid forms, and other application and matriculation components. Many students will lose vital one-on-one support from college counselors and program staff, who are often students' sole resource providing expert guidance to ensure their postsecondary success. This loss of support will have a significant, long-term negative impact on students and their families; a college degree has shown to be a key lever for social and economic mobility, typically doubling the lifetime earning potential of high school graduates.

On behalf of the students we impact, thank you for your commitment to their education dreams and consideration of continued support for College Access for All.