Wave Wire Services
East LOS ANGELES — Gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton has unveiled a proposal to establish a tuition-free business school in East Los Angeles for income-qualified California students.
Hilton’s campaign said UCLA, USC, Claremont McKenna College and other universities would be invited to compete to become the founding academic partner under the proposal.
The school would offer paid internships, mentors from California companies, a business incubator and privately backed seed funding for student ventures, according to Hilton’s campaign.
“Talent is already in East L.A.,” Hilton said in a statement. “What is missing is the same standard, the same network and the same expectation that a kid growing up in Palo Alto takes for granted.”
Hilton said the proposal is intended to provide students from working-class communities with access to business education and opportunities to start companies.
“California does not need another program that trains young people for the jobs someone else decided are realistic for them,” Hilton said. “East L.A. needs an elite school that teaches students how to found a company, finance it, build it and lead it.”
The campaign of Hilton’s Democratic opponent, former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, did not respond to a request for comment.
Hilton said that if elected governor, he would seek to fund the East Los Angeles pilot in his first state budget by combining existing higher-education and workforce resources with matching support from the university partner, employers and philanthropic organizations.
His campaign said the proposal would not create a new state bureaucracy or impose a new tax, but did not provide a projected cost for establishing or operating the school.
Hilton said the first class would begin during his first term, with the possibility of expanding the model to other communities if the East Los Angeles program proves successful.
