Gov. Jerry Brown signed California’s multi-billion dollar budget Thursday, which includes increased funding for the University of California and a new statewide scholarship program for middle-class students.
The $96.3 billion budget allocates $2.67 billion to the UC, a 5 percent increase from last year.
For the second year in a row, the UC has seen increases in state support, after more than four years of funding cuts due to state budgetary shortfalls, said Paul Golaszewski, an analyst for the Legislative Analyst’s Office. The Legislative Analyst’s Office is a nonpartisan state agency that provides policy advice to the state legislature.
In November 2012, California voters passed Proposition 30, which raised income and sales taxes to help fund education. The initiative, combined with higher state revenues, allowed the state to increase the UC’s funds for the next fiscal year.
Because of the increase, the UC will keep tuition the same for the 2013-2014 academic year, said Dianne Klein, UC spokeswoman, in an email statement.
The state budget, however, does not restore recent cuts to the Cal Grant program, which provides aid for low-income students, Heiman said.
The University will use the funds to hire more faculty, expand course sections and maintain affordability for undergraduates, said Patrick Lenz, UC vice president for budget and capital resources, in a statement.
The budget also allows the UC to refinance debt issued by the state on the UC’s behalf, saving the UC up to $80 million to use freely this year, on top of the 5 percent funding increase by the state.
Originally, Brown intended to implement a four-year funding plan that would allocate funds to public universities if they could meet certain performance standards, such as rates of four-year graduation and enrollment of low-income students, Golaszewski said. For example, if the UC did not accept enough low-income students in one year, then the UC would forfeit any increases in funding that year.
Brown dropped this proposal because California legislators thought the requirements were not carefully calculated for universities to meet, Golaszewski said. The budget still requires the UC to annually report on its performance on four-year graduation rates and enrollment rates of low-income students, among other metrics.
Brown will likely bring these requirements back to next year’s budget negotiations, Golaszewski said.
The budget also creates a middle-class scholarship program, which provides scholarships for students with annual family incomes between $80,000 to $150,000.
Award amounts will decline for students with higher family incomes. For example, students whose families earn $80,000 will receive a 40 percent tuition discount, while students whose families earn $150,000 will receive a 10 percent discount.
The program will apply to students attending the UC or California State University systems. Students may start applying in the 2014-2015 academic year.
Students will also have to meet basic Cal Grant requirements, but the scholarship is not need-based, said Judy Heiman, an analyst on student financial aid at the Legislative Analyst Office.
To qualify for the middle-class scholarship program, students must maintain a minimum 2.0 grade point average, have no defaults on any loans and apply for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA.
About 5,000 UCLA students could qualify for the program, according to the UC.
In any given year, more students could apply for the program than what the state originally funded for, Heiman said. In that case, each student’s award will be reduced to adjust for the number of applicants.
The middle-class scholarship program will not be fully funded until the 2017-2018 academic year. Until then, the program will only provide partial awards to students.
Mark Rayos, a second-year geography and environmental studies student, whose family income qualifies him for the scholarship program, said while the scholarship would help, he feels uncertain about how much he will actually benefit.
“I may not be around to reap the full benefits of the scholarship,” Rayos said.