Esteban Cortez / The Collegian
Gov. Jerry Brown has signed into law the California Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minor Act, also known as the DREAM Act. Opponents of the law have raised questions of the cost and effect of the bill.
On July 9, Brown signed Assembly Bill 130 known as part one of the California DREAM Act, which will give undocumented students access to private scholarships and grants. The law will take effect on Jan. 1, 2012.
The signing of AB 131 soon followed on Oct. 8 giving undocumented students access to financial aid at public universities and community colleges. The law will take effect Jan. 1, 2013.
Fresno State student Alex Chavez said the California DREAM Act is not only an education opportunity but rather a benefit for the California economy.
“New Mexico, which has their version of the DREAM Act, has granted in-state tuition and financial aid, [the state] has been quite prosperous,” Chavez said.
Critics are concerned with the cost of the new laws. “The state has a big deficit. When did we get this extra money to give away?” Fresno State student and chairman of Fresno State College Republicans Matt Shupe said.
The California of Finance estimates about 2,500 students will benefit from AB 131. The law will cost the state $14.5 million which is 1 percent of Cal-Grant funds.
“I wouldn’t want to call it a cost but rather an investment,” Chavez said. “When we talked about American kids getting an education, we call that an investment but that’s not the case with undocumented students.
“These are tax dollars that our parents have paid too and they are long over due,” Chavez added.
Assemblyman Tim Donnelly in an opinion piece for the UC Berkeley newspapers stated that the California DREAM Act is an incentive for future immigrants. “Students who are in the country illegally cannot legally get a job in California.”
So arguments that this is an investment are, at best, misguided,” Donnelly added.
Donnelly, along with other opponents of the new law, have begun collecting signatures to overturn AB 131 which they see as unfair to California students.
“Conservatives will argue that we (undocumented students) are taking seats and I believe that we’re not,” Chavez says. “I want to defend that by saying that I’m competing for my seat at this university just like everybody else who’s competing for their seat.”
To qualify for this new legislation, students must meet certain requirements such as having attended and graduated from a high school after attending a California school for at least three years. Students must also show they are in the process of applying to legalize their immigration status.
Undocumented students must also meet specific financial and academic standards.
“Once people are informed and know more about it they will see that most of the fear tactics that the opposition is using are just that,” Fresno State political science student Luis Ojeda said. “And there is no credibility to them.”
The goal of many supporters of this new law is to pass similar legislation at the federal level and to help undocumented students gain access to a college education.
“Our main goal would be to enact a federal Dream Act that would be the same throughout the United States rather than doing it by a state-by-state-basis,” Ojeda said. “But since Congress has been ineffective lately at doing much, I think the state-by-state process has been adequate.”
While Arizona, Georgia and Alabama have passed harsh immigration laws, California has joined states like Texas and Illinois in passing laws that benefit undocumented students.
Political science professor at Fresno State Thomas Holyoke said, “If we don’t give them the opportunity for a university education then what we are creating is a large permanent underclass.
“All the indicators show that in California and everywhere in the United States the future is going to be in advanced jobs in which you need a solid university education,” Holyoke said.
To inform parents and undocumented students, the Education Leadership Foundation and other organizations will host a summit Nov. 12 at Fresno State. The New Chapter in Higher Education: AB 540 event will be held at the Pete Peters Educational Center. The summit will include presentations and workshops among other presentations for students and parents.
Joeseph Miller • Nov 24, 2011 at 3:00 pm
Obviously you right-winged idiots like Kathy Jones, Don Honda, and Sophie Bailey to name a few, are using scare tactics and misleading information to defame a law which you have not even seen its economic prosperity. All we hear about is costs, costs, cost, yet your ass has gone through the same route and I don’t hear you complaining about how much you cost the state! And next time, stop getting your information from Fox News and wikipedia! These are well deserving individuals who DO NOT have an opportunity to legalize themselves! I am a white Californian who has worked just as hard as these young people and they deserve nothing less. If the federal government had an easy opportunity for people to come legally into this country in the first place we wouldn’t be having this problem right now. My hat goes off to Chavez, a young man who knows what it means to WORK for his education rather than wait for the government to pay financial aid for him like you are doing! California has become proactive by allowing these students to earn an education and when the day comes for them to get legalized they will be ready to be those Doctors, Lawyers, engineers, and businessmen, professions this country needs to stay so “great”. You are selfish individuals that are just looking to scapegoat a particular group and blame for your economic problems! Shame on you! Why was this issue not a problem 4 years ago? BECAUSE WE DIDN’T HAVE A CRAPPY ECONOMY AND THERE WAS NO ONE AND NOTHING TO BLAME!!! Get your heads out of your ass and analyze this bill! and for the record, the bill itself does not allocate 40+ million to these students, its only 14.1 Million! READ THE BILL, NOT YOUR CONSERVATIVE/MISLEADING BULLSHIT!!!
Kathy Jones • Nov 12, 2011 at 4:11 am
Flo except for some general grey areas of mandates who qualifies for the Cal Grant tell me specifically where does it give the specifics on how they will ensure the funds will be used for those that have been here 10 plus years that paid taxes? I am guessing you have not even read the Dream Act, nor the recent State Controller report that indicates it will actually cost us more like 42 million a year. And I am guessing your political professor is hoping for the same type of brainless following.
Flo • Nov 10, 2011 at 8:33 am
You do realize that these undocumented immigrants have been staying here for 10+ paying taxes right? The reason most of us are able to pay taxes is because of the tax ID number. I think people that are able to pay taxes should be able to stay. OH and if America lets undocumented immigrants stay, the US will make $$$, which is what the economy desperately needs!
Sophie Bailey • Nov 8, 2011 at 12:03 pm
“These are tax dollars that our parents have paid too and they are long over due,” Chavez added.
This student, Alex Chavez, acts as if his family has received nothing in exchange for whatever taxes they have been paying. Did Chavez attend public schools? If so, the state paid over $9,000 each year for his education. Does Chavez have a sibling or two in public schools? Oh, then the state is paying $18,000 or $27,000 every year just to educate the members of his family.
California’s taxpayers are already contributing to the cost of college for illegal immigrants — by allowing them to pay in-state tuition rates (which is a subsidy of at least $8924 for a full-time student at CSU Fresno and an $11,000 annual subsidy in the UC system).
And there are all the other services that illegal immigrant families get to enjoy that are paid by our combined taxes — public safety, fire departments, public libraries, road maintenance, public health services, state and local parks, etc. And many have benefited from some special programs, such as free school lunches, if they are a low income family.
So, please don’t make it sound like these “undocumented” students have been shortchanged by an unfair system.
Kathy Jones • Nov 8, 2011 at 8:58 am
Governor Brown signed Assembly Bill 131, the second half of the so-called “DREAM Act.” Despite its name, it offers little more than a mirage to the students it promises to help and a nightmare to the citizens whose hard-earned dollars will be used to fund it.
As a graduate of the University of California, Irvine who worked his way through school to pay out-of-state tuition the first year until he became a legal resident, I understand both the cost and the value of an education.
California’s UC and CSU systems are currently facing the most drastic budget cuts that we have seen in a generation ”” more than $1 billion. At the same time, the state is hiking tuition rates on all students by 10 to 12 percent while students compete in lotteries to get enough classes to graduate.
As citizens continue to struggle through what may come to be known as the Second Great Depression, it is an insult to every California citizen who subsidizes the university system to pass this fiscal nightmare.
The state has told students that it does not have adequate funds to pay for enough classes so they can graduate in four years. Now, California is even actively recruiting out-of-state students to help fill the education budget gap. Still, the Legislature purports to have miraculously found $40 million to fund the dreams of these illegal students, on top of offering them in-state tuition rates.
It is absurd. Even the governor expressed reservations about funding this subsidy in our current economic state.
This bill institutes an expansion of funding for one category of students while requiring others to pay more on their behalf. This is unfair, fiscally irresponsible and bound to encourage more illegal immigration, which already costs between $11 billion and $22 billion across the country annually. I believe we need more legal immigration. This law, however, entices more people to come here in the most dangerous way possible.
By creating a new entitlement for those who are in the country illegally, we are engraving an invitation to those who have not yet come ”” what are you waiting for? Not only do we offer a K-12 education, a myriad of welfare programs and in-state tuition, but now we will tax the citizens of California to provide additional financial aid for your child’s college education. In the end, though, the dreamlike promises still fall short.
Students who are in the country illegally cannot legally get a job in California, regardless of the degree they obtain. So, arguments that this is an investment are, at best, misguided. Worse yet, I fear that this bill does nothing but prolong the inevitable realization that to fully participate in society, these students must go through the honorable process to become citizens. Only then can they truly pursue the American Dream. AB 131 is merely a cruel hoax on both the future ”dreamers” and the citizens who are forced to give up their child’s dream to fund this nightmare bill.
Tim Donnelly is a California State Assemblyman for the 59th District. This opinion piece originally appeared in slightly different form in The Daily Californian.
Join the fight. Help stop AB 131
http://stopab131.com/
Robin Hvidston • Nov 8, 2011 at 8:55 am
Our tax dollars should be for our US students!
mariaguas • Nov 7, 2011 at 11:29 am
I still do not understand how we can give free money to ILLEGAL persons. This is so wrong.
Don Honda • Nov 7, 2011 at 10:02 am
For the first year alone:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dream-20110901,0,5365623.story
“It is not known how many undocumented students would be eligible for the aid. A Senate committee analysis estimated the bill’s cost at about $40 million. That includes $13 million for Cal Grants, which average about $4,500; up to $15 million in community college waivers; and $12 million in institutional aid from the University of California and California State University systems.”
http://egpnews.com/?p=29709
“On behalf of the California Student Aid Commission, I am requesting a correction to a quote attributed to me, Lori Nezhura, Legislative Director for the California Student Aid Commission, in the “Trying to Keep the Dream Alive” article posted on July 14, 2011 on EGPNews.com.
It is imperative that your readers be informed that the number of High School Entitlement Cal Grants and Transfer Entitlement Cal Grants are unlimited and available to all students meeting financial need, GPA, and other eligibility criteria. Therefore, if passed, Dream Act students will be able to receive these awards if they meet the same requirements.
Conversely, the number of Competitive Cal Grants is limited. However, the bill stipulates that Dream Act students may only receive one of these awards provided funds remain after all eligible non-AB 540 California residents are awarded.”
Most of AB 131 assigns free State aid based on Need. CA Community College does not require a minimum GPA (fee-tuition waivers and EOPS), while the rest only requires a 2.0-2.6 GPA. So, this is not the “Best and the Brightest” of Illegal Alien Students. This is clearly Economic Discrimination against US Citizens, Legal Californian Residents, and Legal Immigrants who have seen their tuition rates rise dramatically while not being eligible or have seen their financial aid reduced. It is this discriminated population who ARE our FUTURE. Their only option is to take on crippling Loan Debt.
Also, with the heavy recruitment of out-of-state and Foreign Nationals who can pay nearly twice the in-state tuition rate to refund our defunct education system, Legal Californian Residents and Legal Immigrants will be “priced out” and “placed out” of THEIR American Dream, THEIR higher education.
And here’s how AB 131 does not help anyone:
http://www.600words.com/2011/10/ca-dream-act-misleads-all-including-its-beneficiaries.html
There are already 10,000 volunteers to start getting signatures with petitions. If there was $1Million to be spent, the petitions would be ready in one month. Donnelly is trying to get this done through social media and radio stations.
Here’s more info at:
https://www.facebook.com/standwithcalifornia
http://www.donnellyforassembly.com/
http://taxpayerrevolution.org/
http://stopab131.com/
https://www.facebook.com/StopAB131
Or you can order petitions by e-mail. Send your name, address, and the number of petitions requested to:
[email protected] or to [email protected].
And here’s what will happen when AB 131 Illegal Alien Students get a free CA higher education at the expense of (mostly) Middle Class Legal CA Residents and Legal Immigrants and cannot be legally employed: They go back to their “home country”, even though “USA is the only home I know.”:
http://unioncity.patch.com/articles/acting-on-a-dream-a-look-into-the-life-of-an-undocumented-student-8bbc3666
Don Honda • Nov 7, 2011 at 9:58 am
For the first year alone:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dream-20110901,0,5365623.story
“It is not known how many undocumented students would be eligible for the aid. A Senate committee analysis estimated the bill’s cost at about $40 million. That includes $13 million for Cal Grants, which average about $4,500; up to $15 million in community college waivers; and $12 million in institutional aid from the University of California and California State University systems.”
http://egpnews.com/?p=29709
“On behalf of the California Student Aid Commission, I am requesting a correction to a quote attributed to me, Lori Nezhura, Legislative Director for the California Student Aid Commission, in the “Trying to Keep the Dream Alive” article posted on July 14, 2011 on EGPNews.com.
It is imperative that your readers be informed that the number of High School Entitlement Cal Grants and Transfer Entitlement Cal Grants are unlimited and available to all students meeting financial need, GPA, and other eligibility criteria. Therefore, if passed, Dream Act students will be able to receive these awards if they meet the same requirements.
Conversely, the number of Competitive Cal Grants is limited. However, the bill stipulates that Dream Act students may only receive one of these awards provided funds remain after all eligible non-AB 540 California residents are awarded.”
Most of AB 131 assigns free State aid based on Need. CA Community College does not require a minimum GPA (fee-tuition waivers and EOPS), while the rest only requires a 2.0-2.6 GPA. So, this is not the “Best and the Brightest” of Illegal Alien Students. This is clearly Economic Discrimination against US Citizens, Legal Californian Residents, and Legal Immigrants who have seen their tuition rates rise dramatically while not being eligible or have seen their financial aid reduced. It is this discriminated population who ARE our FUTURE. Their only option is to take on crippling Loan Debt.
Also, with the heavy recruitment of out-of-state and Foreign Nationals who can pay nearly twice the in-state tuition rate to refund our defunct education system, Legal Californian Residents and Legal Immigrants will be “priced out” and “placed out” of THEIR American Dream, THEIR higher education.
And here’s how AB 131 does not help anyone:
http://www.600words.com/2011/10/ca-dream-act-misleads-all-including-its-beneficiaries.html
There are already 10,000 volunteers to start getting signatures with petitions. If there was $1Million to be spent, the petitions would be ready in one month. Donnelly is trying to get this done through social media and radio stations.
Here’s more info at:
https://www.facebook.com/standwithcalifornia
http://www.donnellyforassembly.com/
http://taxpayerrevolution.org/
http://stopab131.com/
https://www.facebook.com/StopAB131
Or you can order petitions by e-mail. Send your name, address, and the number of petitions requested to:
[email protected] or to [email protected].
And here’s what will happen when AB 131 Illegal Alien Students get a free CA higher education at the expense of (mostly) Middle Class Legal CA Residents and Legal Immigrants and cannot be legally employed: They go back to their “home country”, even though “USA is the only home I know.”:
http://unioncity.patch.com/articles/acting-on-a-dream-a-look-into-the-life-of-an-undocumented-student-8bbc3666