California’s colleges hold the power to either narrow or reinforce persistent divides in a state economy that continues to be marked by widespread inequality.
The gap between high- and low-income residents is wider in California than in most other states, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. Since 1980, median family income has risen 40% for families with at least one four-year degree holder, while it has fallen 9% for families without any college graduates. And large income gaps continue to exist across the state’s racial and ethnic groups.
Open Campus, in partnership with newsrooms across California, examined these inequities in 2025, and how colleges are working to respond to shifting labor markets, the rising costs of living, and urgent shortages in key industries like teaching and social work. Our stories reveal what’s helping and what’s getting in the way of progress.
Takeaways from our stories
- Colleges are increasingly playing a frontline role in regional economies. Community colleges and universities are being tasked with ever more responsibilities for reconnecting disconnected youth (nearly 500,000 young people ages 16 to 24 in California are neither working nor in school), retraining displaced workers in fields like energy, and helping their communities fill key shortages in public-service jobs even as the cost of living rises across the state.
- Unpaid training is a major challenge for equity. Requirements such as unpaid student teaching, clinical hours for therapists, and social work internships disproportionately exclude low-income and first-generation students, even as these fields face severe labor shortages.
- Workforce alignment is critical to improving colleges’ value to state policymakers, local leaders, and families. Displaced refinery workers and adults without degrees need programs that lead to liveable wages and stability — not just credentials that fail to translate into real labor market value. This is especially critical as enrollment grows in programs offering short-term credentials.
- Targeted efforts have limited impact without other supports. Efforts to diversify STEM fields or expand job training often produce modest gains when underlying barriers such as cost, time, transportation, and caregiving constraints remain.
- Promising workforce programs are vulnerable without stable funding. New offerings, such as community college programs focused on training homeless service workers, demonstrate potential but are often threatened by budget uncertainty and short-term grants.
Highlights of our reporting
Half a million young Californians aren’t in school or work. Most are men.
Finding them a job is part of the solution, but many also are struggling socially and emotionally, making it even harder to move forward. Men are particularly at risk. (CalMatters, with Open Campus)
Oil refinery closures leave workers searching for a job that ‘just doesn’t exist’
Many of the workers don’t have college degrees and lack clear paths to another well-paying job. The state has put $30 million toward this issue, but the funds rarely cover the full costs of training. (CalMatters, with Open Campus)
California invested millions pushing these careers for women. The results are disappointing.
Despite millions in state investment, women in California continue to lag behind men in science, technology, engineering, and math programs. This gap could worsen salary disparities. (CalMatters, with Open Campus)
Can California residents afford to become California teachers?
State teacher preparation requirements—particularly the unpaid 600-hour classroom requirement—create financial barriers that disproportionately prevent working-class candidates and people of color from entering the profession. (LAist, with Open Campus)
Many Californians can’t get mental health help. Is it too hard to become a therapist?
California has a major shortage of mental health providers, especially in rural areas. The state has money into expanding the pipeline, but many say the educational requirements are still too costly. (CalMatters, with Open Campus)
San Jose State keys in on the next generation of social-service workers
This university is steering more graduates into roles directly serving their region, not tech giants. But students face major financial roadblocks, including requirements to work internships that are mostly unpaid. (San Jose Spotlight, with Open Campus)
A new program trains college students for jobs helping homeless Californians. Can it survive?
Santa Monica College started the state’s first community college program to train the next generation of homeless service workers. But it faces unreliable funding, high attrition, and political turmoil. (CalMatters, with Open Campus)
In San Diego, the model minority stereotype is not always so attainable for Filipinos
Fewer than half of Filipinos in the city have a bachelor’s degree or higher, and their annual median wage lags behind white residents’ by more than $15,000. (inewsource, with Open Campus)
About Open Campus
At Open Campus, we partner with local newsrooms around America to strengthen local coverage of the institutions shaping their communities.
In California, we work every week with Adam Echelman, who covers workforce training and California’s community colleges for CalMatters, and Felicia Mello, who covers higher education in the East Bay for Berkeleyside.
In 2025, we also collaborated with several more newsrooms across California to assess and reveal the role of colleges in the future of the state’s workforce and in tackling high levels of income inequality.