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View Winners → Education Mar 08, 2021
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On Feb. 19, California State Assembly member Jose Medina and the California Student Aid Commission proposed Cal Grant Reform Assembly Bill 1456 to increase post-secondary educational accessibility for low-income groups including older students, adult learners, students who are parents, and students of color.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and California’s subsequent economic recession, two bills intending to reform the Cal Grant system — AB 1314 and SB 291 — were withdrawn last year in March. CSAC was directed to craft a new, less ambitious bill within the Cal Grant’s previous budget. According to CSAC , under the proposed AB 1456, community college students’ Cal Grant eligibility would grow from 124,000 to 279,000 students.
AB 1456 would implement a new system where age will no longer determine eligibility and GPA requirements will be loosened. Under this new system, Cal Grants will depend primarily on financial need. In an effort to simplify the process, the bill proposes the eradication of the A, B, and C categories and the implementation of a binary system: Cal Grant 2 for community college students and Cal Grant 4 for four-year university students. With the expansion of Cal Grants, individual student awards will decrease. If AB […]
