Friday, March 18, 2011

BIENVENIDO A KOOKFORNIA

Jerry D says ‘This article will burn your butt. Illegals are doing it to us again. First they enter the country illegally, then they draw benefits (welfare, free housing, etc) and now they want to get financial aid to go to the colleges and universities that we pay for with our taxes.’

COMMITTEE APPROVES COLLEGE FINANCIAL AID FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
By David Olson

The Press-Enterprise
March 15, 2011

A state legislative committee Tuesday passed two bills that would make illegal-immigrant students eligible for some types of financial aid.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed three earlier versions of the measures, but backers are optimistic this year because Gov. Jerry Brown campaigned in support of what is known as the California Dream Act.

Jorge Fierros, 31, of Riverside, was one of several Inland students who traveled to Sacramento to lobby legislators to support the bills. Fierros has been at Riverside City College for more than four years because, with the full-time factory, construction and restaurant jobs he's had, he has been unable to take more than a class or two each semester. As an undocumented immigrant, he is ineligible for government aid.

The bills "would help me focus more on my academics than having to work so much on the side to help me pay for tuition," said Fierros, who hopes to transfer to Cal State San Bernardino in the fall to study criminal justice.

The bills passed the higher education committee along party lines, with Democrats supporting it and Republicans voting against.

"The governor continues to support the principles behind the Dream Act," said Evan Westrup, a spokesman for Brown.

Illegal-immigrant students who spend three years in and graduate from California high schools have been eligible for in-state tuition since 2001. That 2001 law also granted in-state tuition to some citizens and legal residents who would otherwise be ineligible.

Students who benefit from the law are ineligible for all but some private financial aid. One of the bills that passed Tuesday, AB 131, would give those students access to state-funded financial aid. The other, AB 130, would make students eligible for tens of millions of dollars in private scholarship money that each year is funneled through public college and university foundations. Current law bars illegal-immigrant students from receiving that money.

The University of California believes its undocumented-immigrant students would receive between $2 million and $3 million a year under AB 131, said David Alcocer, associate director for student financial support for the UC system. Legal residents and citizens would be eligible for about $4 million, Alcocer said. Only an estimated 80 undocumented students would be eligible for the private scholarships under AB 130, he said.

Cal State and the community college system do not have estimates on the number of their illegal-immigrant students or the financial effect of the legislation. UC estimates there were about 600 illegal-immigrant undergraduate students in 2008-09 on its nine undergraduate campuses.

UC sent letters Monday in support of the two bills, saying that the lack of financial aid serves as a barrier for undocumented students to attend UC campuses.

"Right now, our hands are completely tied," said Sheryl Hayes, director of financial aid for UC Riverside. "We can't offer any assistance whatsoever."

In-state tuition saves UC undergraduate students about $23,000 a year and typical Cal State students about $9,000 annually. UC estimates that eligible undocumented students get a combined $10 million annual break on their tuition. But Alcocer said the cost to the state is probably lower, because many of those students likely cannot afford out-of-state tuition.

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