Student Aid Bill Sent to Governor

CalMatters lists 21 bills the legislature has sent to the governor which he can sign or veto. Among them is an expansion of state student aid. However, the governor's own Dept. of Finance has reservations as does CSU. The community colleges, in contrast, are reported to support it.

Massive expansion to college financial aid

By Mikhail Zinshteyn  9-13-21  

WHAT THE BILL WOULD DO

This is a once-in-a-generation overhaul of the already generous Cal Grant, the state’s chief financial aid program. AB 1456* would add another roughly 120,000 community college students eligible for the grant’s $1,650 in annual support. It will also expand eligibility for about 40,000 students at four-year colleges to have their tuition partially covered at private schools and fully waived at the Cal State University and University of California. The expanded aid will be the result of loosening eligibility requirements, including getting rid of time-out-of-high-school and age restrictions plus either dropping or lowering GPA requirements. Added state cost: estimated between $85 million to $175 million a year, plus start-up cost of $58 million.

WHO SUPPORTS IT

Carried by Democratic Assemblymembers Jose Medina of Riverside and Kevin McCarty of Sacramento plus Sen. Connie Leyva of Chino. The Chancellor’s Office of the California Community College is a fan, largely because Cal Grant eligibility rules have excluded hundreds of thousands of low-income community college students. 

WHO’S OPPOSED

The governor’s Finance Department, citing higher costs than bill backers estimate and fears that state universities will raise tuition. Cal State has issues with it, too.

WHY IT MATTERS

This is huge, both on its own merits and how it would mesh with other major new and forthcoming financial aid overhauls. Various expansions of the Cal Grant would coincide with the Legislature’s plans to create a debt-free grant for low- and middle-class UC and Cal State students, though notably not for community college students. For years lawmakers have tried to take big swings at enlarging the state’s college affordability programs, but cost stopped them. Now that California’s coffers are expected to overflow, lawmakers are seizing the chance to bring college affordability to hundreds of thousands of more students. Whether that commitment remains during lean times is a question.

GOVERNOR’S CALL: ?

Source: https://calmatters.org/explainers/california-legislature-bills-passed-2021/

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*The text of the bill is at:

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1456.