Senator Portantino Introduces Cal Grant Equity & College Access Act to Improve Higher Education Affordability

State Senator Anthony J. Portantino (D – La Cañada Flintridge) introduced Senate Bill 851, a measure that strengthens and expands financial support for low-income college students who choose to attend independent, nonprofit California colleges and universities.

“SB 851 will help California prepare and educate our workforce, help close the equity gap among our student population and restore the envisioned role that independent colleges and universities play in serving diverse student bodies,” stated Senator Portantino. “It will also remove arbitrary limits on student access to higher education and provide broad equal opportunity for students to thrive at institutions of higher education across California.”

Under existing law, low-income California students are excluded from several parts of the Cal Grant program if they attend an independent, nonprofit California college or university (ICCU), including the supplemental $6,000 award for students with dependent children, the supplemental $6,000 award for current and former foster youth, and the ability to utilize their California Community College Transfer Entitlement award.

SB 851 strengthens and expands the state’s support of low-income college students who choose to attend an ICCU by restructuring the existing framework for Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT) admit targets and Cal Grant award amounts to provide a pathway to future award growth for students. It also expands eligibility for supplemental Cal Grant support to student parents and foster youth who attend an ICCU and the California Community College Entitlement Program to allow newly eligible transfer students to use their remaining Cal Grant eligibility at an ICCU.

The changes reflected in SB 851 will improve affordability for low-income students, remove artificial barriers to supplemental support, and eliminate discrepancies on how foster students, parents, and community college transfer students are treated under the Cal Grant program if they choose to attend an independent college or university. The bill also addresses the need to restructure the Associate Degree for Transfer targets that are used to set the Cal Grant award amounts for students attending ICCUs by establishing more appropriate metrics. The existing targets were made based on several factors including enrollment targets that did not take into account declining enrollment.

“It’s been too long since Cal Grant students at nonprofit colleges and universities had access to a strong and stable award amount, as their peers at the UC or CSU do,” commented Kristen Soares, President of Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities. “SB 851 will strengthen and grow the award by removing the arbitrary way the award amount it currently set in the state budget. The bill will also create greater college access and equity by making students in the independent sector eligible for newly expanded Cal Grant supplemental programs. Our Cal Grant students confront similar challenges as their peers at the public universities and deserve access to the Cal Grant benefits adopted by the state. The Cal Grant is a change-maker in the lives of students and SB 851 will ensure that all California students—no matter where they choose to attend—will have a robust award and support from the state they call home,” she added.

SB 851 is sponsored by the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities (AICCU) – which represents more than eighty (80) independent nonprofit colleges and universities in California that collectively educate nearly 200,000 undergraduate students, including approximately 27,000 Cal Grant recipients and over 32,000 adult learners. AICCU institutions also enroll over 5,200 new California Community College students annually.