May 10, 2011
By Reanna Delgadillo
Students who meet in-state tuition requirements are closer to getting financial aid.
The bill is on its way to the governor’s desk. AB 130 was passed by the state assembly and is now moving to the senate. Its companion bill, AB 131, has been put into suspension.
AB 130, authored by Assemblymember Gil Cedillo, states undocumented students would receive “specified financial aid programs administered by California’s public colleges and universities,” according to Cedillo’s website.
Conrado Terrazas, communications deputy for Cedillo, said the main goal is to help the economy.
“If you have these students graduate from college and get a master’s or a Ph.D. or a B.A., they’re going be able to contribute to the economy,” Terrazas said.
He added that would also help the students.
“These are the best (students). Kids who have done well in high school and they have applied and been accept to college,” Terrazas said. “This should not prevent them from being able to succeed.”
He added that students who would normally receive a scholarship and complete the process of meeting the requirement would benefit.
“The only thing preventing those students from receiving that is the fact that they’re undocumented,” Terrazas said.
Terrazas said the deadline for all bills to be given and pushed to the governor’s desk is Sept. 9.
“Then he has until Oct. 9 to sign,” Terrazas said.
Terrazas added AB 130 pertains to private scholarships from businesses or corporations.
“AB 131, which covers Cal grants, institutional aid and Board of Governors (BOGC) fee waivers for community colleges,” Terrazas said.
AB 131 is now in suspension and chair of Assembly Appropriations Committee, Felipe Fuentes and the head of the budget committee Bob Blumenfield will decide if it will be released.
“It needs to be voted by the appropriations committee by the end May or it would die,” Terrazas said.
Terrazas said Gov. Jerry Brown said he supported the Dream Act in a debate last fall.
Erik Fallis, CSU media specialist, said the system has always been a long time supporter of this type of legislature.
“We are an institution built on access. We believe in providing broad access to higher education,” Fallis said.
He added the CSU believes it’s “important” for the most amounts of people to have access to higher education.
“To better themselves, to better their lives and to have access to a bright economic future,” Fallis said.
Fallis said this legislation will help to “generate prosperity for their community.”
Fallis said allowing more access to the CSUs would help the entire state.
He said another consideration when it comes to this bill is the number of students it would affect in the CSU.
“We’re talking about a small population,” Fallis said. “Its much less than 1 percent. We are not talking about a huge number of people.”
“There are so many positive benefits not only for the individual but for society as a whole,” Fallis said.
Javiera Infante is one of the founding member of the San Fernando Valley Dream Team.
“I started organizing in January and the group has grown to 10 very active members,” Infante said. “This is a pretty good base for the time being.”
She said the organization was “very excited” about the passage of AB 130.
“We were very confident it was going to pass because it’s the easier half of the California Dream Act,” Infante said. “So we were very sure we weren’t going to have a problem.”
Infante said it is “crucial” to get AB 131 out of suspension and onto the Assembly floor.
“We need that financial aid the state can provide for us,” Infante said. “Having the private scholarships is a great help and we’re very happy about that but most important is having access to the state-funded help.”
Infante said the Dream Team is holding a town hall May 14 at Mary Immaculate Church in Pacoima to inform the community of the Dream Act.
“Fuentes represents a large portion of the valley,” Infante said. “We want people to know he has the power to move the bill out of appropriations.”
Source: http://sundial.csun.edu/2011/05/california-dream-act-inches-closer-to-reality/
Friday, May 20, 2011
Deep Social Services Cuts Outlined in California
By JESSE McKINLEY
Published: January 10, 2011
SACRAMENTO — Workers were removing the ornaments from the Christmas tree at the Capitol here on Monday morning, and much the same mood filled the legislative chambers as Gov. Jerry Brown unveiled his Grinch-like budget.
Gov. Jerry Brown introduced his budget Monday.
It included $12.5 billion in spending cuts, with a 10 percent cut in take-home pay for some state employees and deep reductions in social services. He also suggested a five-year extension of a bundle of taxes, a plan that requires voter approval, setting the stage for a potentially contentious special election in June.
The budget is meant to address an estimated $25.4 billion deficit, just the latest shortfall for a state that has experienced a drumbeat of bad economic news in recent years. But Mr. Brown, who took office last week, cast the blame even further, saying the state’s leaders had spent the last decade balancing their books with “gimmicks and tricks and unrealistic expectations that pushed this state deeper and deeper into debt.”
But that period, Mr. Brown repeatedly emphasized, was over.
“What I propose will be painful,” he said. “It’s going to take sacrifice from every sector of California.”
In terms of sheer dollars, the steepest cuts affect the most vulnerable in the state, including a $1.7 billion cut to Medi-Cal, the state’s health insurance program for poor families and disabled people; a $1.5 billion reduction in its welfare-to-work program; and $750 million cut from the agency that provides services to those with developmental disabilities.
The state’s higher education system — including the highly regarded University of California — would lose $1.4 billion. The president of the university, Mark G. Yudof, who has dealt with protests at several campuses over tuition increases, called it “a sad day for California,” but he seemed to recognize the gravity of the state’s bind.
“The university will stand up and do all it can to help the state through what is a fiscal, structural and political crisis,” Mr. Yudof said. “There can be no business as usual.”
That sentiment seems to be an early mantra for Mr. Brown, a Democrat who became governor for the second time. He also proposed on Monday what he characterized as a “vast and historic” reorganization, moving many duties now handled by the state down to a local level. (Some of the shift of power to the state occurred during the first Brown administration, when the voter-approved Proposition 13 cut local taxation power.)
Under Mr. Brown’s plan, a raft of state functions — like fire and emergency response, court security, and housing for low-level criminals and oversight of adult parolees, among others — would become local or county responsibilities. The proposal was met with guarded support by county officials.
“Realignment can only succeed if there are stable revenues to fund the new responsibilities being handed to counties,” said John Tavaglione, the president of the California State Association of Counties.
Budget analysts said Mr. Brown’s approach seemed more realistic, with less reliance on borrowing, than some budgets offered by his immediate predecessor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican.
On Monday, Republicans — in the minority in the Legislature — seemed cool to putting any tax proposal on the ballot.
“Assembly Republicans stand united as the last line of defense for California taxpayers,” said Connie Conway, the Assembly’s Republican leader.
Mr. Brown said that he would vigorously campaign for the taxes and that deeper cuts awaited if voters rejected the tax extension.
“People should assume that’s what’s left is what will be cut,” he said.
Even if the taxes pass, the effect of the budget cuts will be harsh, said Jean M. Ross, the executive director of the California Budget Project, a nonpartisan group that evaluates the repercussions of public policy on low- and middle-class Californians.
The cuts, “especially in health and human services, are very difficult at a time when the economy remains extremely weak,” Ms. Ross said, adding that the effects could be multiplicative, as poor families received less aid but had to pay more for care.
The cost of health care was the focus of several hundred protesters who gathered on the Capitol steps after Mr. Brown’s announcement, demanding that the state adopt a single-payer health system. Inside, a group of advocates in wheelchairs also criticized a steep reduction in financing for in-home care.
“Some people are going to lose their lives on this,” said Greg Thompson, executive director of the Personal Assistance Services Council of Los Angeles County, which has some 185,000 people receiving in-home care. Mr. Thompson uses a wheelchair because of a spinal cord injury.
Mr. Brown acknowledged that many of the cuts would be “very, very difficult,” especially for low-income Californians. But he said it was time for the state to “pay the piper.”
“This is the world we live in,” he said. “You can’t manufacture money.”
Malia Wollan contributed reporting.
A version of this article appeared in print on January 11, 2011, on page A13 of the New York edition..
Published: January 10, 2011
SACRAMENTO — Workers were removing the ornaments from the Christmas tree at the Capitol here on Monday morning, and much the same mood filled the legislative chambers as Gov. Jerry Brown unveiled his Grinch-like budget.
Gov. Jerry Brown introduced his budget Monday.
It included $12.5 billion in spending cuts, with a 10 percent cut in take-home pay for some state employees and deep reductions in social services. He also suggested a five-year extension of a bundle of taxes, a plan that requires voter approval, setting the stage for a potentially contentious special election in June.
The budget is meant to address an estimated $25.4 billion deficit, just the latest shortfall for a state that has experienced a drumbeat of bad economic news in recent years. But Mr. Brown, who took office last week, cast the blame even further, saying the state’s leaders had spent the last decade balancing their books with “gimmicks and tricks and unrealistic expectations that pushed this state deeper and deeper into debt.”
But that period, Mr. Brown repeatedly emphasized, was over.
“What I propose will be painful,” he said. “It’s going to take sacrifice from every sector of California.”
In terms of sheer dollars, the steepest cuts affect the most vulnerable in the state, including a $1.7 billion cut to Medi-Cal, the state’s health insurance program for poor families and disabled people; a $1.5 billion reduction in its welfare-to-work program; and $750 million cut from the agency that provides services to those with developmental disabilities.
The state’s higher education system — including the highly regarded University of California — would lose $1.4 billion. The president of the university, Mark G. Yudof, who has dealt with protests at several campuses over tuition increases, called it “a sad day for California,” but he seemed to recognize the gravity of the state’s bind.
“The university will stand up and do all it can to help the state through what is a fiscal, structural and political crisis,” Mr. Yudof said. “There can be no business as usual.”
That sentiment seems to be an early mantra for Mr. Brown, a Democrat who became governor for the second time. He also proposed on Monday what he characterized as a “vast and historic” reorganization, moving many duties now handled by the state down to a local level. (Some of the shift of power to the state occurred during the first Brown administration, when the voter-approved Proposition 13 cut local taxation power.)
Under Mr. Brown’s plan, a raft of state functions — like fire and emergency response, court security, and housing for low-level criminals and oversight of adult parolees, among others — would become local or county responsibilities. The proposal was met with guarded support by county officials.
“Realignment can only succeed if there are stable revenues to fund the new responsibilities being handed to counties,” said John Tavaglione, the president of the California State Association of Counties.
Budget analysts said Mr. Brown’s approach seemed more realistic, with less reliance on borrowing, than some budgets offered by his immediate predecessor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican.
On Monday, Republicans — in the minority in the Legislature — seemed cool to putting any tax proposal on the ballot.
“Assembly Republicans stand united as the last line of defense for California taxpayers,” said Connie Conway, the Assembly’s Republican leader.
Mr. Brown said that he would vigorously campaign for the taxes and that deeper cuts awaited if voters rejected the tax extension.
“People should assume that’s what’s left is what will be cut,” he said.
Even if the taxes pass, the effect of the budget cuts will be harsh, said Jean M. Ross, the executive director of the California Budget Project, a nonpartisan group that evaluates the repercussions of public policy on low- and middle-class Californians.
The cuts, “especially in health and human services, are very difficult at a time when the economy remains extremely weak,” Ms. Ross said, adding that the effects could be multiplicative, as poor families received less aid but had to pay more for care.
The cost of health care was the focus of several hundred protesters who gathered on the Capitol steps after Mr. Brown’s announcement, demanding that the state adopt a single-payer health system. Inside, a group of advocates in wheelchairs also criticized a steep reduction in financing for in-home care.
“Some people are going to lose their lives on this,” said Greg Thompson, executive director of the Personal Assistance Services Council of Los Angeles County, which has some 185,000 people receiving in-home care. Mr. Thompson uses a wheelchair because of a spinal cord injury.
Mr. Brown acknowledged that many of the cuts would be “very, very difficult,” especially for low-income Californians. But he said it was time for the state to “pay the piper.”
“This is the world we live in,” he said. “You can’t manufacture money.”
Malia Wollan contributed reporting.
A version of this article appeared in print on January 11, 2011, on page A13 of the New York edition..
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