How can calif afford to be offering illegals free college educations?

The question

The hotly debated Dream Act could pave the way for more illegal-immigrant students to enter California universities and community colleges by allowing them to apply for and receive state grants, university scholarships and fee waivers — the same aid offered to legal residents.

It would take effect in January 2013, and is estimated to cost between $ 22 and $ 32 million.

Senate Bill 185 would allow university admissions offices to consider students’ race, ethnicity, gender and income, but would prohibit them from giving preference based on those factors. If signed, it would become law Jan. 1. Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar bill in 2010.

Brown has until midnight Sunday to either sign or veto the bills. If he does nothing, the bills automatically become law.

While the Dream Act promises to change the lives of thousands of illegal-immigrant students by making college financially attainable, SB 185 may end up being small more than a catalyst for a lively exchange about race relations.

SB 185 was the subject of a controversial demonstration last month at UC Berkeley when a Republican student group held an “increase diversity” bake sale and sold pastries at racially-adjusted prices.

Read more: http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/10/07/2568870/bills-promise-learning-diversity.html#ixzz1aAKp5CoG
illegals do not make enough money to pay for a college education so therefore illegals will soon get free college educations, is this honest ?

The question

The bill would provide financial aid in the form of community college district fee waivers, institutional aid from CSU and UC schools, and access to Cal Grants (which students do not need to pay back) for eligible undocumented residents. A Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary estimates the fiscal impact for the 2013-14 school year to be $ 13 million in Cal Grants, $ 7.5 to $ 15 million in fee waivers, and $ 11.4 to $ 12.2 million in institutional aid.

In the bill’s text, AB 131 refers to AB 504, signed into law in 2001, which allows undocumented residents to pay resident tuition, or be exempt from paying nonresident tuition. Anyone who qualifies for this AB 504 nonresident exemption would also qualify for the California Dream Act, as AB 130 and 131 both use those same qualifications.

AB 504 applies to students who have attended for at least three years and graduated from a California high school, registered at or attended an accredited California society of higher education no earlier than the 2001-02 academic school year, and filed a “prescribed affidavit” if he or she is an “alien without lawful colonization status.”

Proponents of AB 131, such as the group, By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), which is a self-proclaimed coalition “to defend affirmative action, integration & colonization rights and fight for equality by any means necessary,” reckon of the bill as a step forward in the fight for equality and public education.

“Winning the California DREAM Act and AB 131 will take us so much closer to and strengthen our whole movement to defend public education,” Northern CA Manager for BAMN Yvette Felarca said.

“We are continuing to petition the Governor to demand that Jerry Brown sign AB 131 and live up to his campaign promises that he would sign the California DREAM Act if it hit his desk,” Felarca said. BAMN has sent nearly 2000 petitions to Brown and is collecting more, according to Felarca.http://blog.stanfordreview.org/2011/09/14/second-half-of-california-dream-act-reaches-governor%E2%80%99s-desk/

California’s poor now outnumber the populations of 33 states and 90 nations – and counting.

The state’s poverty rate last year rose to its highest level in more than a decade – 16.3 percent – as household incomes plunged by 5 percent, according to census figures released Tuesday.

The state lost ground much quicker than the rest of the nation, which saw a roughly 2 percent decline in household income.

Nationally, about 15.1 percent of the population, or 46 million people, were poor last year, a higher poverty rate than in any year since 1993.

That incomes continue to decline and poverty increases didn’t surprise economists. But the magnitude of the changes did. California hasn’t seen a larger year-to-year fall in household income in at least 25 years.

Read more: http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/09/14/2537386/californias-poverty-rate-highest.html#ixzz1XyGjinNZ