Community colleges are stepping up to train the state's next generation of nurses and medical assistants, but money woes often trip up students. Enter BOOST, a new Los Angeles Community College District pilot that’s handing out $1,000 a month to qualifying low-income students chasing healthcare careers, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The Los Angeles district, with nine colleges and 194,000 students, is the state’s largest and among the largest college systems in the U.S. Per the district, over half its students live near or below the poverty line, juggling jobs, rent and childcare while studying. Launched late last year, the Building Outstanding Opportunities for Students to Thrive (BOOST) program gives unrestricted cash for 12 months to help students focus on their degrees. The goal? Build a diverse, multilingual healthcare workforce to meet California’s needs.

Participants, chosen by lottery, must be low-income, pursuing health-related majors, and show financial need. Of the 251 recipients at the time of reporting, 72% are female, 65% are Hispanic or Latino, and 47% have kids. Their average household income is $31,853, with 29% speaking Spanish primarily at home.

The program’s $3.9 million comes from private sources: $3.1 million from the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and $867,500 from the California Community Foundation’s Young Adults Forward Fund. It’s a rare investment in California’s 2.1 million community college students, where over half of high school grads start their higher education. BOOST is also a research study, with the University of Pennsylvania tracking how the cash impacts students’ well-being and degree completion. Amy Castro, co-founder of the university's Center for Guaranteed Income Research, told the LA Times:

“Lack of basic needs, food insecurity and unexpected financial shocks create barriers for students that often push them out of education. ... Dreaming about your future should be a feature of young adulthood that is open to all — not just the wealthy or those with the good fortune to have ironclad access to higher education.”

California desperately needs healthcare workers, and community colleges are key to filling that gap. But financial insecurity often derails students before they can graduate. BOOST aims to change that, though it’s not without critics. In 2024, NPR reported that some Republican-led states are banning similar cash programs, suggesting they're a waste of public funds. Since BOOST is privately funded, it sidesteps that debate--for now.

Bill Handel