BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  AB 540
                                                                  Page  1

          ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
          AB 540 (Firebaugh)
          As Amended May 1, 2001
          Majority vote 

           HIGHER EDUCATION    6-1                                         
           
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          |Ayes:|Alquist, Havice, Liu,     |     |                          |
          |     |Lowenthal, Matthews,      |     |                          |
          |     |Negrete McLeod            |     |                          |
          |     |                          |     |                          |
          |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
          |Nays:|Bogh                      |     |                          |
          |     |                          |     |                          |
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           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  :  None

           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.  








                                                                  AB 540
                                                                  Page  2


          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.  

          However, in this amended form, the author has removed several  
          elements of this bill and placed the content of the legislation  
          within the findings and declarations.  As such, this bill is now  
          limited to intent language.

          Technical amendments:  This bill currently includes repeated  
          references in Section 2 to portions of this bill that were  
          eliminated by the author's recent amendments.  The entire  
          section does not stand alone and should be removed from this  
          bill.

          Previous legislation:  AB 1197 (Firebaugh) of 1999 was vetoed by  
          the Governor. 
           

          Analysis Prepared by  :    Paul Mitchell / HIGHER ED. / (916)  
          319-3960                                               FN:  
          0000587