Expanding College Access Through Direct Admission
By Senator Christopher Cabaldon, California State Senate
At the heart of the American Dream is opportunity; yet too often barriers to opportunity keep people from thriving. That’s why I’m so excited about the idea shared in today’s Roadmap post by California Senator Christopher Cabaldon, who has scaled a wildly successful program he created as Mayor into a new statewide initiative to remove barriers to college enrollment. Cabaldon’s “Direct Admission” Initiative, one of the 2025 NewDEAL Ideas Challenge Winners, was signed into law by Governor Newsom in October and ensures every qualified graduating senior will receive a letter of admission to a California State University campus. As Senator Cabaldon says, “As elected officials, our job should be to remove barriers so more people can achieve better opportunities”, and his bold plan does just that. – NewDEAL CEO Debbie Cox Bultan
Higher education has the potential to be transformative for young people, especially those who have the opportunity to be the first in their family to achieve a college degree. And yet, far too many qualified high school seniors never pursue higher education due to lack of awareness, low confidence, or hurdles encountered in the application process.
College may not be the path for every person, but no high school graduate should be denied the opportunity because of these barriers. And in California, we are working on breaking these barriers so that students can thrive on their own terms.
In order to open the gates of opportunity to more students, I pioneered a direct admission program into our local community college when I was mayor of West Sacramento. At that time, we called it the city’s Home Run program, the first city-run initiative in the country to automatically admit qualifying students to community college and waive their tuition. The premise is simple: Instead of requiring an application process, which can be arduous or confusing, each qualifying student automatically received a congratulatory admission letter to our community college.
The program was a success on every level. So much so that it was featured as an example of how to use psychological prompts to achieve a beneficial outcome in Nudge, the NYT bestseller by Nobel Prize winner Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein.
When I became a state Senator, I wanted to expand this opportunity to more students. Around the same time, the California State University (CSU) independently launched a pilot program that sent all qualified high school seniors in Riverside County an offer of admission to 10 campuses, most of which are under-enrolled. Of the 17,000 students who received offers of admission for the fall 2025 semester, 13,200 completed the required paperwork – an increase of 3,000 over the previous year.
Knowing success was possible on a larger scale, I introduced legislation to bring the program to all California students. Built on the legacy of successful predecessors, my legislation establishing direct admission to the CSU system for qualified high school seniors was signed into law in October 2025.
The act of receiving an acceptance letter is a powerful psychological prompt for a student to consider a four-year college, even if they did not think it was possible. By making the progression to “13th grade” as easy as the progression from 11th to 12th grade, this new law will inspire more California high school students to attend college – one of the most surefire ways to upward economic mobility.
As much as the program is beneficial to high school students, it is also a boon for state universities. Nine CSU campuses saw enrollment drop 11 percent or more between 2015 and 2024. One of the hardest hit, Sonoma State University (SSU), is located in my Senate district. SSU saw enrollment fall from more than 9,000 in 2015 to less than 6,000 in 2024. The drop in student population caused severe cuts to faculty, academic programs, and NCAA sports.
Direct admission has the potential to reverse this trend and put more students in our university system.
And in the long run, these college graduates will produce more workers qualified to fill the jobs that are being created in our state. As technology and AI continue to grow and expand, businesses will create more high-demand – and high-paying – jobs for our graduates.
In the end, it is still up to the hard work, grit, and determination of students to turn college into a successful stepping stone to a more prosperous future. As elected officials, our job should be to remove barriers so more people can achieve better opportunities. The Direct Admission program is a roadmap other states can follow to do just that.
Senator Cabaldon’s Direct Admission Program was one of six winners of the NewDEAL Forum’s Ideas Challenge competition.