California Community Colleges get big gift for scholarships

(05-06) 16:22 PDT SACRAMENTO -- Leaders of the huge California Community College system announced an unprecedented $50-million gift today from The Bernard Osher Foundation in what's believed to be the largest donation ever made to a two-year college system in the U.S.

The 109-campus system will leverage some of that money in a matching fundraising campaign to create a $100 million endowment for scholarships, which will boost the system's collective endowment to an estimated $400 million.

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In addition to the $50 million gift pledged to the system, The Bernard Osher Foundation will give $20 million for scholarships for community college students transferring to the California State University and the University of California systems.

The California Community Colleges are the state's higher education workhorses, educating more than 2.6 million students each year, many of them low income. The system is a gateway to the state's four-year public universities with community college transfers make up two-thirds of California State University graduates and one-third of University of California graduates. And it trains a huge majority of California's firefighters, police officers and nurses....