July 25, 2011 | 4:01 PM | By

Now that half the California Dream Act is law, what’s next?

FILED UNDER: Health/Education, Politics/Justice, California Assembly, California Dream Act, Dream Act, Gil Cedillo, Gov. Jerry Brown, Mike Eng

Photo by Leslie Berestein Rojas/KPCC

Students' t-shirts at the AB 130 signing ceremony today at Los Angeles City College, July 25, 2011

As students peered through bookshelves to catch a glimpse, Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a piece of legislation known as AB 130 in the library of Los Angeles City College, a community college serving students on the working-class southern fringe of Hollywood.

Photo by Leslie Berestein Rojas/KPCC

Gov. Jerry Brown addresses the crowd at Los Angeles City College, July 25, 2011

The bill is one-half of a legislative package referred to as the California Dream Act, two bills sponsored by Democratic Assembly member Gil Cedillo that aim to make it easier for undocumented college students to pay for college. The mood was celebratory as Brown put pen to paper, granting these students access to scholarships based on private, non-state funding previously unavailable to them.

But afterward, the students in the library made no bones about being disappointed that AB 130′s companion bill, AB 131, has yet to make it to the Senate floor for a vote. That bill would enable them to access public state-funded financial aid, including Cal Grants, as U.S. citizen and legal resident students do now.

“It’s good that AB 130 passed,” said Shirley Santos, 19, a sophomore at Fullerton City College studying to become a biochemist. “But it’s not complete.”

Santos, who arrived in the United States at age five with her family and remains undocumented, wore a white t-shirt depicting a half-full glass with a question mark, as did several of her friends.

It’s a milestone just that AB 130 has come as far as it has, with similar legislation sponsored by Cedillo having been vetoed three times by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. It was the easiest to pass of the two bills. The prospects for AB 131, which would involve the use of state funding, remain unclear. Opponents have raised questions about how the state would pay for the student aid while it struggles through a financial crisis.

The estimated annual cost of AB 131 ranges between $32 million and $35 million, according to Cedillo and his staff, but some of that money is already budgeted as Cal Grants funding for qualifying students who can’t currently access it. According to Luis Dario Quiñones, a legislative aide for Cedillo, about $13 million dollars would come from money set aside each year for low-income students whose grades qualify them for Cal Grants. The difference would come from other sources.

An estimated 24,000 undocumented students graduate each year from California’s public high schools, Quiñones said.

The bill’s Republican opposition in the legislature includes Assembly member Jim Silva of Orange County, who wrote last week in the Orange County Register that the two bills would “spend additional dollars on illegal immigrant students that would otherwise be spent on legal students.”

Assembly member Mike Eng, who co-authored both bills with Cedillo, said an argument can be made that these students are not getting a free ride on account of their immigrant parents’ contributions.

“This is a state of immigrant parents who have created wealth,” Eng said. “I think they get it. And politically, you can justify that these parents pay into the tax system. Just as a matter of fairness, these are individuals whose parents have paid their dues.”

Eng and Cedillo both said they were optimistic that AB 131 would eventually land on Brown’s desk. Legislators have until late August to move the bill out of the Senate committee where it remains in suspense.

  • Anonymous

    This is a common misconception. There may be private scholarships/grants involved, but AB 130 also includes Board of Governors (BOG) Fee Waiver, and Institutional Student Aid: Student aid program administered by the attending college or university (i.e. State University Grant, UC Grant).

    I’m just setting the facts straight as the rhetoric leans towards this being NOT using PUBLIC FUNDS, while, in fact, it does. This comes directly from CA Assemblyman Gilbert
    Cedillo’s DREAM Act memos:

    http://as.ucsd.edu/council-old/act_attachments/Attachment%20120110216181738.pdf

    And as for AB 131 only being assigned to ILLEGAL ALIENS after US citizens are handled is misleading. Lori Nehzurah, Governmental Relations staff of the California Student Aid Commission, has been misquoted in perpetuating in this matter: EGPnews.com

    “On behalf of the California Student Aid Commission, I am requesting a correction to a quote attributed to me, Lori Nezhura, Legislative Director for the California Student Aid Commission, in the “Trying to Keep the Dream Alive” article posted on July 14, 2011.It is
    imperative that your readers be informed that the number of High School Entitlement Cal
    Grants and Transfer Entitlement Cal Grants are unlimited and available to all students meeting financial need, GPA, and other eligibility criteria. Therefore, if passed, Dream Act students will be able to receive these awards if they meet the same requirements.Conversely, the number of Competitive Cal Grants is limited. However, the bill
    stipulates that Dream Act students may only receive one of these awards provided funds remain after all eligible non-AB 540 California residents are awarded. Since approximately only 1 in 10 eligible applicants currently receive a Competitive Cal Grant, it is likely that there will be no fiscal impact to the State with respect to this particular program.”

    So, where is this money supposed to come from? 

    I am now voting Republican on every issue and candidate so that this can be repealed and deportations en masse may start.  We have allowed ourselves to be inundated with ILLEGAL ALIENS who take our jobs, ruined our education system by catering to them, and now, have pushed out LEGAL IMMIGRANTS and US CITIZENS from receiving their entitled share of these monies.  If AB 131 passes and gets signed, I fear that many people will
    not wait until the next election to rectify this self-hatred Californians seem to have for themselves and their own children.

  • Lberesteinrojas

    Once more, here you go – details of both bills (fee waiver, etc. is in AB 131) :AB 131: http://www.aroundthecapitol.co…AB 130: http://www.aroundthecapitol.co…Like
    Reply18

  • Hh011

    How about, instead of looking at quotes from 3rd person view just read what is contained in the bill  instead of making a judgement of people who don’t fully understand the bill enough to put it into simple words. As for undocumented workers taking American’s jobs it’s all a lie, how many documented workers apply to be a field worker or take jobs with poor living conditions, most American’s would rather collect unemployment than work at a minimum wage job. So you tell me who would work the fields? Just do some research on the economic force of California and you tell me what you find from it.   

  • Xavier M. Fernandez

    It is time for the U.S.A. to take care of Americans.  Illegal imigrants our not the U.S.A.’s responsibility.  It is too bad that parents do not feel responsible enough to let their children know they are here illegally and that at sime time they may be asked to leave the country.  If we do not take a “hard”line on all illegal imigrants issue the situation will con tinue to grow.  Once all american college students have recieved their grants save the next for the following years.

  • ARMANDO038200

    Sometimes the Law gets in the way of what is FAIR!

    Fair: Free from BIAS, dishonesty, or injustice: a fair decision; a fair JUDGE.