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Merritt College, in the Oakland hills. Credit: Sarahbeth Maney for The Oaklandside<\/p>\nThe preschool at Merritt College, in the Oakland Hills, occupies what was once the school\u2019s auto shop, a hulking but light-filled structure on the south end of campus. The classroom opens into an outdoor play space where, on a bright winter day, one boy is attempting to water the plants, drenching his pants, while a group of children on tricycles spin wobbly circles on the asphalt. In the middle of the action stands Marquitta Eddings, a 42-year-old student with two kids of her own. \u201cYou were riding really fast,\u201d she calls to a boy who has come to an abrupt halt. He looks up at Eddings, smiles, and zooms off.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Eddings is among a group of student teachers completing a preschool practicum, the capstone course for an associate\u2019s degree at Merritt in child development. In May, if all goes as planned, she will walk across the stage at Oakland\u2019s Paramount Theater with her fellow graduates. After that, who knows? On good days she can picture herself transferring to Cal State East Bay, in Hayward, earning her bachelor\u2019s and then pulling in a middle-class salary as a teacher or case worker. \u201cI\u2019d like to maybe work with new moms,\u201d she says. \u201cThat was something I never had.\u201d<\/p>\n
Merritt College, in the Oakland hills. Credit: Sarahbeth Maney for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n
Right now, though, it\u2019s hard to think too far into the future. As she keeps an eye on the kids, she is worried about her own son. Josiah, her eldest, is 21, autistic, and lives at home. After months of looking, Eddings finally connected him to a disability employment service that had an opening for a dish washer. The job begins tomorrow, and he\u2019s been calling all morning in a panic. \u201cThe company sent him documents he can\u2019t fill out, with information he can\u2019t process, and to a place he can\u2019t get to,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
During a break Eddings receives a call from her son\u2019s caseworker at the Regional Center of the East Bay, a nonprofit that contracts with the state to provide services to people with developmental disabilities. She had heard the center offered free Uber rides for clients, which she hoped would be a way to get Josiah to the job site, located on Coast Guard Island. It turns out they only reimburse rides after the fact. \u201cI have no money,\u201d she tells the caseworker. \u201cI\u2019ve been unemployed for 18 months \u2014 what money am I gonna find to give him a ride?\u201d<\/p>\n
After the call, Eddings looks deflated. \u201cPart of having an adult child that is autistic is \u2014\u201d she stops to wipe away tears. \u201cHe has an independent living skills worker, but he can\u2019t come until later, \u2018cause he\u2019s got another job, since nowadays people need three jobs to survive. I\u2019m in this place where I feel like I gotta quit doing what I\u2019m doing so that I can do what he needs. But I\u2019m tired of doing that. If I say I\u2019m tired of doing that, does it make me a bad mom? He\u2019s blowing my phone up and I\u2019m here trying to start a new career.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/large-Economic-Mobility-4.jpg\")
Eddings and her daughter Malini Savoy, 14, prepare food before school drop-off at their home in Oakland. Credit: Sarahbeth Maney for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/large-Economic-Mobility-12.jpg\")
Eddings marks her community college graduation date on a calendar. Credit: Sarahbeth Maney for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n
For Eddings, this inner turmoil is familiar. For a long time, she\u2019s felt the pull of hope, the yearning to secure a more stable future for herself, Josiah, and her 14-year-old daughter, Malini. And then the anxiety pushes in, the fear that if she doesn\u2019t step back their lives might unravel completely. These conflicts underscore a central challenge facing community colleges.<\/p>\n
They can be powerful engines of social mobility, affordable bridges to four-year colleges or vocational programs that lead to living wages. In a city like Oakland, with its stark racial, educational, and economic disparities, community college has the potential to transform the lives of students like Eddings, who often arrive facing significant hurdles on their path to a degree, like being single parents, first generation college students, or already juggling full-time work.<\/p>\n
Never miss a story. Sign up for The Oaklandside\u2019s free daily newsletter.<\/p>\n
But in a city like Oakland \u2014 where a high cost of living coexists with high poverty rates \u2014 can students like Eddings manage to make it through?<\/p>\n
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Eddings arrives at Merritt College for her Child Development Lab practicum course. Credit: Sarahbeth Maney for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n
Community colleges don\u2019t receive the attention elite universities do, but their footprint is vast, particularly in California, where a system of 116 community colleges serves 2.2 million students.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Merritt, in the Oakland Hills, is part of the Peralta Community College District, along with Laney College in downtown Oakland, Berkeley City College, and the College of Alameda. The district\u2019s student body of more than 21,000 is as diverse as the East Bay. One in four students is 35 or older. Asians, African Americans, and whites each make up about 20% of the population. Latinos make up nearly one-third.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Students tend to carve their own paths: the caretaker training to become a carpenter, the former music executive turned landscape architect, the daughter of Latino immigrants who transferred to the University of California at Berkeley. Most students, like Eddings, are female (55%) and attend part-time (74%).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nisalda Gonzalez, 36, has spent more than two decades as a caregiver, mostly as a nanny, while taking other gigs to get by. \u201cI\u2019m working three jobs, all the time,\u201d she says, seated at a table at Laney College. Now she\u2019s on her way towards a two-year advanced carpentry certification. On the lawn nearby, her class is learning how to lay out a foundation. \u201cI\u2019ve always loved working with my hands, and I\u2019m looking for something that brings stability,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I learned it was only 3% women in construction \u2014 I thought it was higher! I\u2019m like, \u2018Put me in, coach.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Oakland resident Minerva Ramirez began at the College of Alameda and graduated from UC Berkeley in December 2025, becoming the first in her family to earn a bachelor\u2019s degree. The 23-year-old now does fundraising and communications for St. Vincent de Paul of Alameda County, the largest emergency shelter in the county, which serves more than 600 hot meals a day. \u201cI volunteered at nonprofits throughout high school and college,\u201d she says. \u201cI really enjoy the work because I get to see the results every time I come into the office.\u201d<\/p>\n
After many years in the music industry, Alexis Davis Millar, like Gonzalez, came to community college in pursuit of a new career. The 60-year-old earned her associate degree in landscape architecture from Merritt in 2016. Merritt is one of only two community colleges in the state that offer the two-year degree. Most other pathways to becoming a licensed landscape architect require a bachelor\u2019s degree in the subject. Millar says she needed to continue working full-time as she studied, and Merritt was both affordable and flexible enough to make that feasible. \u201cMerritt does a great job of making it accessible.\u201d Millar now runs her own firm in El Cerrito.<\/p>\n
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Eddings walks to Merritt College\u2019s Child Development Lab. Credit: Sarahbeth Maney for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n
For the past three years, Tammeil Gilkerson has been the chancellor of the Peralta district. From 2017 to 2020 she served as the president of Laney College, which was where she really got to know the community college student population, and noticed how many were struggling. \u201cWe started to see high levels of students living in their cars, students who said they couldn\u2019t get access to stable meals,\u201d she told the Oaklandside recently, seated at a conference table at district headquarters, across the street from Laney. As she had conversations with other community college presidents across the state, she learned they were seeing similar trends.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2017, the California Community Colleges chancellor\u2019s office surveyed administrators, faculty, and staff from 105 campuses, asking how often they interacted with students facing housing and food insecurity. More than half said<\/a> such interactions occurred several times a week or daily. In 2018, Gilkerson joined a newly createdstatewide taskforce<\/a> that has conducted surveys on the wellbeing of community college students, which found that many were barely able to meet their basic needs. One report released in March 2019<\/a> found 50% of the state\u2019s community college students reporting food insecurity and 60% reporting housing insecurity.<\/p>\n Spurred in part by these findings, the California legislature passed a law in 2021 that allocated $100 million to establish and support \u201cbasic needs centers\u201d on each campus, where students can receive food, clothing, healthcare, assistance with transportation, and referrals for other services. The most recent of the taskforce\u2019s surveys, released in 2025<\/a>, included responses from 77,000 students across 102 colleges. It found that the needle has barely moved, with 46% reporting food insecurity and 58% reporting housing insecurity, including 20% who had experienced homelessness in the past year. Gilkerson, who now chairs the taskforce, said that Oakland students reported even higher levels of insecurity.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a throughline for humans: you can\u2019t learn if you don\u2019t have stability,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n One key metric for community colleges is called the \u201cpersistence rate\u201d: the percentage of students, excluding those who earn a degree or transfer to a four-year college, who continue their education. In the Peralta district, nearly two-thirds of students tend to stick it out. For example, 62.9% of students who were enrolled in at least one class in fall 2024 were enrolled again in spring 2025. Over the past few years, Peralta\u2019s persistence rate has been about 5% lower than the statewide average.\u00a0<\/p>\n Each year, California\u2019s community colleges serve as a pipeline to four-year universities for tens of thousands of students, many of whom would otherwise never be able to attend. More than half of the students who graduate from the state\u2019s 23 California State Universities began at community college, along with nearly 3 in 10 graduates of University of California campuses.<\/p>\n Students who earn an associate degree but don\u2019t continue to a four-year college still earn about $11,300 more a year than those with only a high school diploma. And in a time of skyrocketing college tuition, the average tuition for a full schedule at a California community college is just $1,390 a year. Many students, like Eddings, receive financial aid and pay far less.<\/p>\n Opportunity Insights, a nonpartisan organization based at Harvard University, has compiled extensive data on social mobility based on millions of anonymous tax records, looking at the financial health of 35-year-olds, which is the age when relative income tends to stabilize, and unpacking how they got there. The data includes a social mobility index for colleges, which explores how successful they are over time at boosting the incomes of students from poor families. Of students at Peralta\u2019s four campuses who were born in 1988, about 1 in 8, or 12%, came from families in the bottom fifth of income nationally and jumped to the top fifth as adults. That kind of radical economic mobility is far less common than it used to be in the United States, the Harvard researchers have found, and puts Peralta in line with other community colleges nationwide.\u00a0<\/p>\n Opportunity Insights has more extensive information on Cal State University, East Bay, one of the colleges students frequently transfer to from the Peralta district \u2014 and the place where Eddings hopes to earn her bachelor\u2019s degree. Cal State East Bay is among the top 7% of colleges nationwide in terms of economic mobility. Poor students there \u2014 those raised in families in the bottom fifth of household income \u2014 have a 44% chance of earning incomes in the top fifth as adults. The campus also attracts a large number of students from low-income families, putting Cal State East Bay in the top quarter of all US colleges in Opportunity Insight\u2019s \u201coverall mobility index.\u201d (By contrast, 54% of poor students at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo become rich adults, but Cal Poly\u2019s percentage of poor students is only 3.1%, compared to Cal State East Bay\u2019s 12%.)<\/p>\n For these reasons, Gilkerson views community colleges as frontline institutions for social mobility. \u201cStudents will get through our doors and transfer to a CSU or UC, but it can take them quite a while,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are the access point. We\u2019re not only a first chance for a lot of people, but a second chance.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n But Gilkerson says the bare bones funding for community colleges can make it difficult to meet the needs of a student body whose educational journeys often face roadblocks. Most of the funding for community colleges<\/a> comes from the state. This year, per pupil funding for community college students in California was $11,923. That compares to $22,991 for CSU students and $37,475 for UC students.<\/p>\n \u201cA fundamental issue for me is that we are underfunded as the largest pathway to careers and education while serving the most fragile but resilient and under-resourced students,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Eddings\u2019 community college journey began 21 years ago, when she was pregnant with Josiah. She signed up for a child development class at Los Medanos College, in Pittsburg, hoping to learn more about parenting.\u00a0<\/p>\n Eddings was born in Oakland. When she was three, her mother was murdered, and she was mostly raised by an aunt; she grew up in Oakland and San Leandro before moving to Antioch when she was 12. After graduating from high school, she was working at Safeway when she got pregnant. \u201cI had no real parents to show me what to do, or any guidance,\u201d she said. \u201cSo why not take some classes?\u201d<\/p>\n Her son didn\u2019t start speaking until he was four and found it nearly impossible to sit still. In kindergarten he was diagnosed with ADHD; later that year he was expelled. As a young Black single mother, Eddings felt the weight of judgments being passed. That mom must be doing something wrong. Of course her kid is causing trouble, without a father in the picture.\u00a0<\/p>\n Eddings moved back to Oakland when Josiah began first grade, at Martin Luther King Elementary in West Oakland. She volunteered at the school, and the next year began working for the school district with children in special education as a substitute para-educator, which she did for six years, earning the minimum wage, then $9 an hour. For the next six years, she was an employee of the Alameda Unified School District, where she worked as a student support provider; Eddings had followed Josiah to the district, whom she had transferred because she felt\u00a0dissatisfied with the services he had received in Oakland.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt was so hard to get people to believe that something was wrong, that he needed more help,\u201d she said. The breakthrough occurred when she finally switched pediatricians; the new doctor listened to Eddings\u2019 descriptions of how her son behaved and agreed that Josiah needed more support. The doctor referred Josiah to a specialist, who referred him to another specialist, who, she said, eventually diagnosed him with autism.<\/p>\n During his senior year, at last at a school designed to handle his learning differences, Josiah earned a 3.7 GPA.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2023, Eddings was working in a temporary position as an administrative assistant with the city of Oakland\u2019s Head Start program when she met a woman named Alice Chinn, from Merritt\u2019s child development department, which had a training partnership with Head Start. Eddings learned from Chinn that the city would cover the costs of her classes, and the next year she enrolled and began taking classes. Later that year, however, her position at Head Start wasn\u2019t renewed, leaving her without income \u2014 or tuition support.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI felt lost,\u201d Eddings said. \u201cIt had been the first time in my life that I had been earning enough money to survive.\u201d Chinn passed along the name of a college counselor in the child development department, Marlo Beall. They sat down together and looked over Eddings\u2019 transcripts. Over the years Eddings had taken a class here and there but never with a plan. \u201cI had a one-point-something GPA,\u201d she said. \u201cIt didn\u2019t look like there was an end in sight.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n With Beall\u2019s help, Eddings was able to remove some of the poor grades from her transcript. Beall also convinced Eddings to take classes year-round, including during the summer. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to do that,\u201d Eddings laughs. \u201cBut she sparked so much life in me. She told me, \u2018If you\u2019re ever feeling down, just send me a text.\u2019 Some nights I\u2019d say, \u2018Marlo I don\u2019t think I\u2019m gonna make it.\u2019 She\u2019d put me on her calendar and we\u2019d talk it through. It got to a point where I could finally see the light.\u201d<\/p>\n Last summer, Eddings earned her first associates degree, in social science. Eddings said she undertook a second degree, in child development, in honor of Beall.\u00a0<\/p>\n The prospect of graduating from Merritt on May 20 is exciting for Eddings, but also anxiety provoking. She was drawn to child development because of her experiences with her own children and her years working in Oakland and Alameda schools. \u201cThe first five years of your kid\u2019s life are the most important,\u201d she said. \u201cThe foundations of empathy, regulation, everything.\u201d But she knows that even with an associate degree, it can be difficult to find work in the field that pays a living wage in a high-cost city like Oakland.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the greatest challenges is low compensation,\u201d said Michelle St. Germaine, chair of the child development department. \u201cWe lose people all the time that would love to remain.\u201d An associate degree opens the door to teaching in preschool and Head Start. According to Indeed.com, the average preschool teacher wage in Oakland is $26.08 an hour, or about $54,000 a year working fulltime. That\u2019s more than $9 an hour above the minimum wage but still well below what MIT has found is a living wage<\/a> for a single parent of two living in Alameda County, and a reflection of this country\u2019s historic underinvestment in early childcare, whose workers, like Eddings, are predominantly women of color.<\/p>\n Eddings knew other fields could be more lucrative. At Laney, the machine technology department has a 100% job placement rate for graduates, with starting salaries ranging from $55,000 to $87,000. Graduates in Merritt\u2019s Radiologic Science department can become radiologic technologists \u2014 whose duties include performing X-rays and CT scans \u2014 and earn an average salary of $114,715 in the Bay Area.<\/p>\n Eddings also knew, however, that she wanted to work with families and children \u2014 and that her ultimate goal was a bachelor\u2019s degree. She has talked to Beall about what it would take to transfer to Cal State East Bay. \u201cIt would open up a lot of possibilities,\u201d Eddings said. It could allow her to get a teaching credential, or become a case worker. If she could design her dream job, she said, she\u2019d work with new mothers, helping them navigate the overwhelming challenges a baby can bring.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it\u2019d be hard because I\u2019m barely paying my bills now,\u201d she said. \u201cEven if I had a full ride, I still don\u2019t have my day-to-day needs met. Sometimes the phone\u2019s not on. Sometimes the wifi\u2019s not on.\u201d Although she is about to earn her associate degree, she still needs to take four more classes to meet the transfer requirements for a Cal State University. After this semester, her financial aid runs out, so she\u2019ll likely have to find a new job to pay for the classes.<\/p>\n Then she reconsiders. \u201cI\u2019m the worst-case scenario and the best-case scenario,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve been through homelessness, children with disabilities, depression. Weight gain and hair loss. Parent loss. Just day-to-day survival. No gas. Everything I\u2019ve been through, I didn\u2019t give up. Even when I wanted to.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/large-Economic-Mobility-8.jpg\")
Eddings assists a child with reading while writing a report during her practicum course. Credit: Sarahbeth Maney for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/large-Economic-Mobility-9.jpg\")
Eddings reviews her checklist while working as a classroom floater during her practicum. Credit: Sarahbeth Maney for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/large-Economic-Mobility-15.jpg\")
Eddings works on a lesson plan and reflection assignment during the practicum. Credit: Sarahbeth Maney for The Oaklanside<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/large-Economic-Mobility-7.jpg\")
A photograph of Eddings with her son Josiah Eddings, 21, left, and Marquitta\u2019s cousin hangs above Josiah\u2019s honor roll certificate at their home in Oakland. Credit: Sarabeth Maney for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/large-Economic-Mobility-14.jpg\")
Eddings pins on her name tag for her Child Development Lab practicum. Credit: Sarahbeth Maney for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/large-Economic-Mobility-5.jpg\")
Eddings with her children Josiah and Malini outside of their home in Oakland. Credit: Sarahbeth Maney for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n