BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1761
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Date of Hearing: March 16, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION
Anthony Portantino, Chair
AB 1761 (Fong) - As Introduced: February 8, 2010
SUBJECT : Cal Grant B awards: award amount.
SUMMARY : Provides a four year phase-in of first-year tuition
and fee benefits for Cal Grant B students. Specifically, this
bill :
1)Increases from 2% to 25% the number of first-year Cal Grant B
recipients who are eligible for payments for tuition or fees
or both in the 2011-12 academic year.
2)Increases the above percentage to:
a) 50% in 2012-13;
b) 75% in 2013-14; and,
c) 100% in 2014-15.
EXISTING LAW provides for Cal Grant assistance for needy
students to be administered by the California Student Aid
Commission and provides that 2% of first-time Cal Grant B
recipients are eligible for payments for tuition or student
fees.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown, but the Assembly Appropriations
Committee estimated that identical legislation introduced in
2008 would incur General Fund costs of about $37 million in the
first year, when an additional 7,300 Cal Grant B recipients
would receive tuition benefits, increasing to $99 million in the
second year, when an additional 20,800 recipients would receive
tuition benefits. These estimates did not account for any
tuition or fee increases after 2009-10.
COMMENTS : Cal Grant background : Among the various Cal Grant
programs, there are two major grants-Cal Grant A and Cal Grant
B. Each has an "entitlement" component that guarantees a grant
to all needy, eligible students, although awards are generally
restricted to students just leaving high school or in their
first year of college. The Entitlement Cal Grant A is for
AB 1761
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students with family incomes ranging up to $92,700 (family of
six) with at least a 3.0 high school grade point average (GPA).
The Entitlement Cal Grant B is for disadvantaged students from
much lower income families (ranging up to $50,900 for a family
of six), but students only need a 2.0 GPA to qualify. Both Cal
Grant A and B also have a "competitive" component that offers
only a limited number of awards that are generally available for
older students.
First-year restrictions on Cal Grant B awards : Cal Grant A
students receive tuition and fee benefits for four years. Cal
Grant B students receive tuition and fee benefits as well as an
access grant to help with books, supplies and other costs, but
98% of the Cal Grant B students are not awarded tuition and fee
assistance in their first year of college. Cal Grant B's
prohibition against tuition and fee support in the first year of
college goes back several decades. The State began the "State
Scholarship Program" in 1955, which later became Cal Grant A.
By the mid-1960s, it was clear that students from the lowest
income families needed more than just tuition and fees, or
access would not be achieved. The "College Opportunity Grant"
(COG) was enacted to add a stipend for books, supplies,
dormitories, etc., to the tuition and fee support. COG, which
later became Cal Grant B, did not provide tuition and fee
support in the first year because it was assumed that really
low-income students would go to a California Community College
(CCC) and should be encouraged to do so. Only the best and the
brightest would go straight to four-year schools, which is why
only the "top 2%" of current Cal Grant B students receive
tuition and fee support. The notion that low-income students
could not or should not enroll directly in a four-year college
or university is no longer widely shared by policymakers, but
the program structure has not changed.
Growing inequities : This situation has resulted in some cases
in which lower income students receive a smaller lifetime Cal
Grant than higher income students. This occurs because the
first-year tuition benefit-currently $9,708 at a private
university and $7,126 at the University of California (UC)-is
more than four years of the access grant (currently $1,551). In
2007-08, for the first-time students attending UC faced the same
situation. As a result, UC began shifting its students from Cal
Grant B to Cal Grant A awards, when possible, to provide
students with the highest four-year award.
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Impact on CCC students : CCC students are not affected by this
program structure as CCC fees are waived for all needy students
through the Board of Governors Fee Waiver program. Cal Grant B
awards for CCC students provide the access grant only.
Previous legislation : AB 2365 (De La Torre) of 2008 and AB 302
(De La Torre) of 2007, which were held in the Assembly
Appropriations Committee, were identical or substantially
similar to this bill. AB 175 (Price) of 2007, which was held in
the Assembly Appropriations Committee, provided for a gradual,
indexed increase in the Cal Grant B access grant.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California State Student Association (co-sponsor)
California Student Aid Commission (co-sponsor)
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Sandra Fried / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960