BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de Le�n, Chair
AB 2000 (Gomez) - Exemption from nonresident tuition
Amended: June 18, 2014 Policy Vote: Education 7-0
Urgency: No Mandate: Yes
Hearing Date: June 30, 2014
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: AB 2000 expands eligibility for the exemption from
paying nonresident tuition at California's public postsecondary
institutions established under the provisions of AB 540
(Firebaugh) Ch. 814/2001 to students who have attained credits
equivalent to three or more years of full-time high school
coursework, and earned these credits in California from a
California elementary or secondary school.
Fiscal Impact: Unknown, but potentially significant loss of
tuition at the University of California (UC), California State
University (CSU), and the California Community Colleges (CCC) to
the extent that the students who would be newly eligible for
in-state tuition would have otherwise attended those segments
and paid out-of-state tuition.
State financial aid: Potentially significant state costs
to increase the number of students who could be eligible
for CalGrants and CCC Board of Governors (BOG) fee waivers.
Background: Existing law, established by AB 540 (Firebaugh)
Ch.814/2001, exempts specified California nonresidents from
paying nonresident tuition at the UC, CSU, and the CCCs, if they
meet all of the following:
1)Attended a California high school for three or more years.
2)Graduated from a California high school or attained an
equivalent degree.
3)Registered or attended an accredited California higher
education institution not before fall of the 2001-02 academic
year.
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4)Filed an affidavit, if an alien without lawful immigration
status, stating that the student has filed an application to
legalize their immigration status or will file such an
application as soon as he or she is eligible to do so.
(Education Code � 68130)
Students who meet the requirements to qualify for the exemption
from nonresident tuition are commonly referred to as "AB 540
students".
Proposed Law: This bill modifies the provisions of AB 540 to
additionally exempt California nonresidents from paying resident
tuition at the UC, CSU and CCC, if they have attained credits
equivalent to three or more years of full-time high school
coursework from a California high school and earned these
credits in California. In addition, it would expand eligibility
for Cal Grants, community college fee waivers, and non-state
institutional aid to include this population. (or something
like that.)
Related Legislation: SB 141 (Correa) Ch. 576/2013 required the
CSU and CCC, and requested the UC, to exempt from non-resident
tuition charges, under specified circumstances, a United States
citizen who moved abroad as a result of his or her parent's
deportation.
SB 150 (Lara) Ch. 575/2013 authorized a CCC district to exempt
pupils attending CCCs as special part-time students from paying
nonresident tuition as a means of extending in-state tuition
benefits to high school students who would ultimately be
eligible for AB 540 benefits upon graduation.
AB 1899 (Mitchell) Ch.509/2012 granted students who are
noncitizen victims of human trafficking, domestic violence and
other serious crimes (T and U visa students) the same exemption
from nonresident tuition and eligibility to apply for and
participate in state and institutional financial aid programs as
that extended to AB 540 students.
AB 130 (Cedillo) Ch.93/2011 authorized AB 540 students to be
eligible for campus scholarships derived from non-state funds.
AB 131 (Cedillo) Ch. 604/2011 established the California Dream
AB 2000 (Gomez)
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Act, which expanded eligibility for state administered financial
aid benefits to AB 540 students.
Staff Comments: The future costs of this bill are unclear
because neither the segments of public postsecondary education
nor the California Department of Education track students in a
way that would identify how many students are in circumstances
that would allow them to benefit from this bill. It is likely
that the number of students who have (1) attained credits
equivalent to three or more years of full-time high school
coursework, (2) earned these credits in California schools, (3)
did so without actually attending three years of high school in
California, and (4) meet the other requirements for AB 540
in-state tuition status, is small.
Those students would be newly eligible for a reduced tuition
rate at each of the segments, and would be able to apply for the
BOG fee waiver, CalGrant awards, and institutional aid. The
primary state expenses will likely come from state financial aid
programs such as the BOG waiver and CalGrant; those are funded
(directly or functionally) from the state General Fund. For
example, if 50 such students enrolled in the UC and received
CalGrant awards for $12,192 each, that would result in
additional state costs of $609,600 (General Fund).
The potential loss of out-of-state tuition from these students
is probably minor in the UC and CSU since they are unlikely to
be able to pay CSU and UC out-of-state tuition. Most students
that currently fall into this category are likely to either
enroll in CCCs where even out-of-state tuition is relatively
affordable, or to forego college altogether because of the
expense and lack of access to financial aid. If 50 such students
enrolled in CCCs full-time paying in-state tuition (who would
have otherwise paid out-of-state tuition), the revenue loss
would be $144,000 (General Fund); if they also received BOG
waivers, the revenue loss would be $177,000 (General Fund).
To the extent that a small number of high school students who
could graduate early are currently choosing to stay enrolled in
California high schools longer for fear they will not be AB 540
eligible without completing three years of California high
school enrollment, this bill could result in K-12 average daily
attendance savings.
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