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.
