Gov. Schwarzenegger vetoed the California Dream Act this weekend ““ which would have made it possible for certain undocumented students to receive financial aid.
Schwarzenegger cites rising student fees as the main reason for the veto.
Certain undocumented students already qualify for the lower instate fee rate and “it would not be prudent to place additional strain on the General Fund to accord the new benefit of providing state subsidized financial aid to students without lawful immigration status,” Schwarzenegger said in a statement.
Oiyan Poon, the president of the University of California Students Association, said she is frustrated by Gov. Schwarzenegger’s lack of human compassion and holds that the act would not present a financial burden to the state.
Poon said she recognizes that there is a budget crisis, but said she believes the issue of increasing fees does not dismiss the issue of financial aid for undocumented students from the discussion table. She said both issues need to be addressed dually.
“It is an issue of our state’s priorities,” she said. “Prisons get about two times more funding than the university system. Is it more important to put people in jail than to educate?”
Fabiola Inzunza, a fourth-year international development studies student and co-chair of Ideas UCLA, an advocacy group for student immigrants, explained that California is required by federal law to provide public education for all students, whether they are documented or not.
“This act would have continued to nurture that investment that has already been made on California students,” she said.
Jennifer Propper, the vice chair of Bruin Republicans, supports Schwarzenegger’s decision.
“The Dream Act sounds good in theory, but ultimately it puts legal immigrant students at a disadvantage,” she said.
If Schwarzenegger passed the bill, only AB 540 students would be eligible for financial aid. These are undocumented students who have met certain government established criteria, such as attending a California high school for at least three years and receiving a high school diploma or its equivalent. Poon explains that not just any immigrant student would qualify for the financial aid.
Inzunza said, at the UC level, 33 percent of all student fees, including the student fees paid by undocumented students, are used for financial aid.
“Undocumented students contribute to this (33 percent), but they are not able to receive back. The Dream Act would have facilitated this process,” she said.
Poon said most of these students did not have a choice when their families moved to the United States.
“In most of these causes their whole families are here and they have built their lives here,” she said.
Poon clarifies that any student who qualifies, whether they are undocumented or not, would have received financial aid and that it is not a matter of dividing a fixed amount of money among all students.
In the past Schwarzenegger has not signed the bill because there needed to be numerous changes, Poon said.
“We have done what he asked for and he still won’t sign and this makes me question his sincerity,” she said.
Inzunza and Poon explain that many AB 540 students are bright students with impressive GPAs, who contribute to society.
“It is a myth that they are sneaky, behind the shadows and just taking from the UC, but this is not what I have seen,” Poon said.