BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2159
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 21, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 2159 (Anderson) - As Amended: April 8, 2010
Policy Committee: Higher
EducationVote:9-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill requires that veterans of the armed forces who become
students at one of the state's public higher education
institutions within one year after moving to California are
immediately eligible for in-state tuition and fees, provided
that these veterans are also eligible for receiving federal
education assistance benefits.
FISCAL EFFECT
The segments do not know how many student veterans would benefit
from this bill, but each segment would incur revenue losses from
the reduced fee payments. These losses could grow over time as
awareness grows of this benefit.
1)UC indicates that, in 2007-08, 253 incoming students
identified themselves as veterans. Applying the systemwide
percentage of domestic out-of-state students (3.6%) yields
nine first-year out-of-state veterans who would pay in-state
tuition, at a revenue loss to UC of $204,000.
2)CSU does not know its veteran enrollment, however, less than
1% of CSU's total enrollment constitutes students from other
states, thus about 500 of CSU's 50,000 incoming freshman are
assumed to be out-of-state students. Assuming 5% (25) of
these students are veterans, the revenue loss to CSU would be
$178,000.
3)CCC also does not know its veteran enrollment. For every 50
full-time equivalent veteran students taking advantage of the
resident tuition benefit, the revenue loss to the districts
AB 2159
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would be $246,000.
COMMENTS
1)Background and Purpose . To qualify for the lower college fees
charged to California residents, students generally are
required to have resided in the state for more than one year
immediately preceding the residence determination date and to
undertake other specified actions such as registering to vote
or registering one's car in California. Tuition and fees for
a full-time undergraduate student in 2008-09, not including
registration and education fees, are:
----------------------------------
| | | |
| |Resident |Out-of-State |
| | | |
|--------+---------+---------------|
| | | |
|UC |$7,473 |$30,110 |
| | | |
|--------+---------+---------------|
| | | |
|CSU |$4,026 |$11,160 |
| | | |
|--------+---------+---------------|
| | | |
|CCC |$26 per |$190 per unit |
| |unit |for 30 unit |
| | |academic year |
| | | |
----------------------------------
Veterans from other states are thus charged the higher fees
above during their first year of enrollment at UC, CSU, or the
CCC. AB 2159 essentially requires the segments to provide
these veterans a subsidy equaling the difference between the
resident and non-resident fees for that first year. (The new
federal Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008
provides specified assistance, to veterans who have served on
AB 2159
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active duty since September 11, including paying the cost of
in-state tuition and fees.)
2)Prior Legislation . Last year, AB 38 (Salas), which was
substantially similar to this bill, was held on this
committee's Suspense file.
Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081