California’s low-income students have long struggled to afford college costs. Help is on the way
Post-secondary education is one of the most powerful tools for advancing social and economic equity. Recognizing this, the California State Senate and Assembly and Gov. Gavin Newsom reached a final budget agreement late last week that includes historic investments to strengthen college affordability for vulnerable Californians, many of whom have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic.
This agreement reforms and strengthens state need-based financial aid by removing age barriers to the Cal Grant program for students at community colleges. More than 200,000 otherwise eligible older applicants were not offered a Cal Grant this past year simply because they are not recent enough high school graduates. Three out of four attend a community college, which serve the majority of the state’s low-income students and underrepresented students of color.
Removing the age barrier to entitlement Cal Grants has long been supported by a diverse coalition of higher education advocates and will aid the least-resourced students — many of whom are students of color who must use about half of their income to cover college costs after available grant aid.
Newly eligible recipients will be able to bring their awards with them when they transfer to a CSU or UC. Those with dependent children will also receive up to $6,000 to pay for non-tuition costs. By 2025-26, the ongoing allocation for this new financial aid guarantee will be over $300M annually, increasing college affordability for hundreds of thousands of additional low-income Californians.
Extending the Cal Grant entitlement to low-income college students regardless of age is key to closing persistent equity gaps and is a major policy milestone.
“This structural change will significantly improve college accessibility and post-secondary educational attainment for older students and students of color,” said Su Jin Jez, executive director of California Competes.
Research from California Competes found 6.8 million Californians aged 25-54 have a high school diploma but no college degree, including 71% percent of Latinx Californians and 61% of Black Californians.
“Investments in Cal Grants will address critical workforce development priorities, with ‘middle-skill jobs expected to account for about 43% of job openings in California by 2024,” said Zima Creason, executive director of the California EDGE Coalition. “Increasing Cal Grant awards are, and should be, part of the solution.”
California’s college students have long struggled to afford college costs, and COVID-19 has exacerbated these issues. Prior to the pandemic, 64% of students reported either the cost of college or balancing school and work responsibilities as the greatest obstacle to their college success; by January 2021, a majority of students reported reduced income, with Black and Latinx students among those hardest hit.
State leaders’ commitment to providing Cal Grants to low-income students at community colleges — where out-of-pocket costs are often the greatest — takes a significant step toward closing the state’s equity gaps.
While additional reforms are still needed to fully transform the Cal Grant program, including simplifying and streamlining it and linking the access award to an automatic annual growth factor as Assembly Bill 1456 would do, the Cal Grant investments supported by the Legislature and governor are monumental and will go far in supporting California’s vulnerable students.
We commend the California Assembly, Senate and governor for their ongoing commitment to college affordability and completion. With labor market outcomes notably stronger for those with college degrees, our state leaders understand that post-secondary education attainment must be a part of any comprehensive approach to equitable economic recovery.
These significant investments in state need-based financial aid will help ensure the state’s economic path out of the pandemic is not only robust but also just.