Portantino Cal Grant Equity & College Access Act Passes Assembly Higher Education Committee

For Immediate Release: June 22, 2022

Contact: Lerna Shirinian, (818) 409-0400

Portantino Cal Grant Equity & College Access Act Passes Assembly Higher Education Committee

Sacramento, CA – Senate Bill 851 authored by Senator Anthony J. Portantino (D – La Cañada Flintridge) strengthens and expands financial support for low-income college students at independent, nonprofit California colleges and universities, passed the Assembly Higher Education. 

“I am excited that SB 851 is advancing in the Assembly. The bill 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 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.

“Social support plays a critical role in a student’s ability to graduate,” Alexis Takagi, 2022 graduate of Santa Clara University.  “The small class sizes facilitated interpersonal relationships with students and professors, which influenced my ability to succeed academically and give back to local communities.  Because of the Cal Grant, I was fortunate to mentor first generation students like myself and served as a transfer student ambassador ensuring students were aware of on-campus resources.  The Cal Grant also allowed me to find my passion to make higher education more accessible regardless of one’s socioeconomic status without continuously worrying about how they would fund their education.”

SB 851 is sponsored by AICCU, which represents more than eighty (80) independent nonprofit colleges and universities in California that collectively educate over 180,000 undergraduate students, including approximately 27,000 Cal Grant recipients and over 32,000 adult learners.  AICCU institutions also enroll over 4,700 new California Community College students annually.

###