The second part of the California DREAM Act is on its way to Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk after approval by the state Senate and Assembly last week, despite concerns that the legislation will increase state expenditures at a time of budget constraints.
AB 131 would give qualified undocumented students access to state-funded financial aid like Cal Grants, as well as fee waivers from the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges for community college students. The money would come from the state’s general fund.
The Senate passed the bill Wednesday, after amending the bill to remove a section which would give out-of-state students who met residency requirements and attended one year of adult or vocational school in California the ability to receive state funding.
The bill was then sent to the Assembly for approval of the amendments. The legislation passed Friday morning.
Between 28,000 and 40,000 undocumented students in California could benefit from the bill, said Jorge-Mario Cabrera, director of communications and public relations at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles.
These students must meet AB 540 eligibility by having graduated from a California high school after attending for more than three years. They must also fill out an affidavit stating their intent to apply for citizenship as soon as possible, according to AB-540 requirements.
About 30 percent of AB 540 students who would benefit from the California DREAM Act are undocumented, Cabrera said.
The majority of the potential new recipients are citizens from other states in the country who moved to California during their high school years, he said.
The legislation allows undocumented students to apply for public financial aid only after citizens and permanent residents have received funding, Cabrera said.
“It’s essentially what’s left over, and it’s a very specific, limited type of funding,” Cabrera said.
Opponents of the bills raised concerns about the bill taking money away from students who are legal citizens, but provisions in the bill ensure that the number of financial aid awards will not diminish, said Tanya Broder, senior attorney at the National Immigration Law Center.
In an email statement, Steve Boilard, director of higher education at the Legislative Analyst’s Office, wrote that the bill includes some open-ended entitlement programs, which would lead to increased state costs.
With other programs like Cal Grants and campus-based institutional aid programs limited to fixed funding, expanding the eligibility pool could crowd out current recipients, Boilard said.
In its report on AB 131, the California Student Aid Commission estimated state expenditures based on current AB 540 student enrollment in the University of California, Cal State and California Community College systems.
The bill would incur a cost of $13 million in its first year of implementation, the report concluded.
“In my opinion, this assumption may underestimate costs, as the AB 540 students actually might be more likely to have financial need,” Boilard wrote.
The aid commission’s report also found that if increased availability of financial aid was given to an existing AB 540 population, attendance at California colleges may increase in the future because the schools will become more affordable.
Excluded from the bill was a path to citizenship for students who graduate from a higher education institute, a component of the federal DREAM Act.
Broder said that, in the larger context, there is still the need for a federal DREAM Act to put these students on the path to citizenship. About 1.5 million undocumented students nationwide would benefit from such an act, Cabrera said.
Gov. Brown, who advocated for the DREAM Act during his gubernatorial campaign, is expected to sign the bill within the next 30 days.