BILL ANALYSIS
AB 540
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 3, 2001
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION
Elaine Alquist, Chair
AB 540 (Firebaugh) - As Amended: May 1, 2001
SUBJECT : Public postsecondary education: residency.
SUMMARY : Express various findings and declarations of the
Legislature, and makes statements of legislative intent, with
respect to the impact of student aid residency requirements and
nonresident tuition payment requirements on undocumented
students.
EXISTING LAW: establishes residency requirements for students
attending a California State University (CSU) or California
Community College (CCC) campus and requires CSU and CCC to
charge nonresident tuition to any student who is not a
California resident, as defined.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : University of California (UC) resident mandatory fees
total $3,964 while nonresidents pay in excess of $10,000. CSU
resident students pay $1,839 in mandatory fees, while
nonresident students pay $7,380. Within CCC, resident students
pay $11 per unit while non-residents pay $130 per unit.
Prior to the May 1, 2001 amendments, this bill would have
allowed specified nonresidents to meet state residency
requirements for the purposes of establishing tuition levels at
CSU and CCC. It would have permitted a nonresident to pay
resident tuition at CSU or CCC provided that they:
1)Attended high school in California for three or more years;
2)Graduated from a California high school; and
3)Continued their education at a California institution of
higher education within one year of high school graduation or
on or before January 1, 2002.
Additionally, it would have allowed persons meeting the above
criteria to be deemed to meet residency requirements with
respect to eligibility for California student aid programs.
AB 540
Page 2
However, in this amended form, the author has removed several
elements of the bill and placed the content of the legislation
within the findings and declarations. As such, the bill is now
limited to intent language.
Technical Amendments : The bill currently includes repeated
references in Section 2 to portions of the bill that were
eliminated by the author's recent amendments. The entire
section does not stand alone and should be removed from the
bill.
Previous Legislation : AB 1197 (Firebaugh) of 1999 was passed by
the Committee on Higher Education, Assembly, and Senate, but
vetoed by the Governor.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
American Civil Liberties Union
Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern California
California Association for Bilingual Education
California Catholic Conference
California Federation of Teachers
California Immigrant Welfare Collaborative
California School Employees Association
California State Student Association
California Teachers Association
Center for Third World Organizations
Children's Advocacy Institute
Chinese for Affirmative Action
Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles
Community College League of California
Immigrant Legal Resource Center
Keek School of Medicine, University of Southern California
Lambda Letters
Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice
Los Angeles Community College District
Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund
National Council of La Raza
National Organization for Women
Salvadoran American Leadership and Educational Fund
Several Individual Letters
AB 540
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Opposition
California Coalition for Immigration Reform
Individual Letters
Analysis Prepared by : Paul Mitchell / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960