In summary: A budget agreement between lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Neusmon includes an additional $227 million in state middle-class scholarships, which will ultimately eliminate any reason for public college students to take loans. It is part of the pledge to This revised program debuted last year, and from an average of about $2,000 he has sent out $300,000 students.
California cemented its position as the most affordable state to get a bachelor’s degree after fulfilling promises made by lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom to expand the state’s middle-class scholarship program. an additional $227 million In this year’s budget agreement.
Debuting last year, the overhauled scholarship now boasts a whopping $859 million. It’s also part of the state financial aid pie. 2016 and 2022California legislators poured about $1.4 billion more into grants and scholarships, bringing total state contributions to about $3.5 billion.
A CalMatters analysis, using new data examining how middle-class scholarships helped students in their first year, found that the grants worked largely as intended, with more students from high-income households It showed that a lot of funds were being sent.
But the program has drawn the frustration of some aid groups who want the state to spend more on low-income students, especially those who are not eligible for existing state financial aid. That’s a tough needle for lawmakers who are trying to keep college costs in check while grappling with a precarious state’s financial outlook.
The scholarship itself had growing pains in its first year. With campuses and state agencies running programs rushing to launch complex programs in a short period of time, many students who expected aid early in the 2022-23 academic year received their grants months later.
Here’s what’s new and what you need to know about California financial aid.
Because of the middle class scholarshipAccording to data obtained by CalMatters from the state financial aid agency, the California Student Aid Board, 302,000 students received an average of $1,970 more in education during the 2022-23 school year.
Students from high-income families were designed to receive more money than low-income students. This is because students from wealthy families receive less financial support from other sources. This scholarship uses a formula that subtracts the amount of financial aid a student receives from the total cost of college. It also assumes that students work hard enough to earn about $8,000 a year.For dependent students People who earn more than $100,000 a year, using additional formulas to calculate how much your family can afford to pay for college. The assumption is that wealthier families can afford to go to college with more money than poorer families.
Students with household incomes between $150,000 and $200,000 received middle-class scholarships averaging about $2,800. This was high for students at the University of California. For students with family income less than her $50,000, the average scholarship was about $1,400.
Students may receive even more money in the future as scholarships increase by another $227 million.
This scholarship complements the state’s primary financial aid tool, the Cal Grant, which covers in-state tuition fees for UC and CSU students and provides cash assistance for community college students. Students are typically enrolled full-time for up to four years and are eligible for both aid programs.
Middle-class scholarships are available to a much larger number of students, i.e. those with higher family incomes. $217,000. Cal Grant income limits are lower. Students from families of four will receive California state grants in 2023 if family income Under $125,600In response to the, Type of grant.
Lawmakers will eventually expand scholarships and public university debt-free pledges so that state-sponsored students won’t have to go into debt to attend UC or CSU. To do that, about $2 billion more will need to be devoted to scholarships annually. Last year, the program received the following funding: About a quarter of capacityThus, students received about a quarter of the full amount awarded under the scholarship.
Different financial aid helps different students
But while the scholarships extend their reach to more students, they keep out students attending community colleges. Karmataz Before report.
Community college students are among the poorest in the state for higher education. And although this is a post from California, Cheapest community college tuition in the countryCommunity college students still have to find ways to pay for rent, food, and transportation.
Because more state, federal, and institutional financial aid is available to students attending the University of California and California State University campuses, community college students are often more likely than students attending public colleges and universities in California. According to one report, they will pay more for their education than set of reports by California-based Institute for College Access and Success.
Excluding community college students from the debt-free promise of middle-class scholarships would exclude most California public higher education students, outnumbering students at the University of California and California State University. Outnumbered by almost 3 to 1.
Lawmakers have expanded the University of California grants to more than 100,000 more community college students in recent years, but next spring the state will open a subsidy program to ensure that nearly all students with low enough household incomes can receive grants. will decide whether to expand the Follow up to UC or CSU if a student transfers. Unknown key: whether the country has the funds to do so.
Several advocate I believe the state should pause expanding middle-class scholarships and instead continue to expand the number of students eligible for California grants. Including community college students.
“It is important that the State of California ensures equitable funding for colleges by prioritizing students with the least resources.” Education Trust — West and Institute for College Access & Success wrote in May. “By far the best approach is to fully fund California subsidy reform instead[of middle-class scholarships].”
California helps more low-income students than any other state
But while wealthy students in the state already benefit greatly from financial aid, middle-class families often bear the greater burden of college costs.
federal government educational data The CalMatters analysis speaks for itself.
Depending on which income bracket you’re looking at, California allows students from households with incomes less than $75,000 to pay for tuition, housing, and food after deducting all state, federal, and campus financial assistance. It ranks 4th or 5th among all states in terms of the amount of money they had to pay for such expenses. A concept known as “netprice”.
But for students with household incomes above $110,000, affordability plummeted. In this group, California ranks him 42nd, meaning there are significantly fewer areas receiving aid.Still, as ratio Considering income, students from wealthy families need to spend less of their family income on college expenses than students from low-income families. Other data show.
Federal data is for 2020-21, the most recent year available, and includes all first-time full-time students who received any federal grant or loan that year.
Here are some “Net Price” highlights for UC and CSU students:
- California students with household incomes between $30,000 and $48,000 had to pay an average of $7,800. This is about $3,200 below the US average.
- For California students earning more than $110,000, the net price was about $21,000, $1,800 higher than the national average.
- The public can look up this “average annual cost” data by school. college scorecard tool.
Expected changes and lingering problems in middle-class scholarship
One expected change is that students previously placed in foster homes will no longer need to borrow money starting this fall, as long as they work part-time. They will begin receiving full scholarships, a new social initiative in this year’s budget agreement that will benefit approximately 600 students annually at a cost of approximately $5 million.
However, a problem that may persist for most other students is that the structure of the scholarship complicates the time it takes for students to actually receive their money.
All California State University students and some University of California students did not receive middle-class scholarships until late 2022 or early 2023, according to data obtained by CalMatters from the California State Board of Student Aid. In other words, the money promised at the beginning of the fall semester did not arrive.
why? The state has found how difficult it is to operate a new financial aid program that cannot determine how much a student should receive until all of the student’s other aid has been calculated. Not to mention suddenly 300,000 students were eligible for the revised scholarships.
Middle class scholarships are “last dollar” cash benefits. How much a student gets is a basic math problem. That is, total attendance minus all other financial assistance, minus her $8,000 from labor, and household minus family contributions from students. Earn over $100,000.
When the scholarships were announced last summer, the campuses and student aid agencies that run the programs scrambled to accurately tally how much money each student would receive.
“As a result, students and their families were not notified in time enough to impact their admissions decisions and funding plans to cover college costs,” it said. The Office of the Legislative Analyst wrote:. Students who did not receive their scholarships in the fall will be paid out next semester along with the remainder of the pledged funds, according to the Student Support Committee.
Further complicating matters is that if a student receives additional money during the academic year, he must return the same amount of middle-class scholarship.
One year has passed since the scholarship was implemented, New bill awaits Newsom’s signature. This will allow students with emergency expenses such as car repairs, rent payments, medical expenses, etc., to receive on-campus emergency assistance and avoid it being counted towards the total financial aid amount. become able to.
