FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 2, 2006

Governor’s Last Minute Vetoes of Legislation Blow to Hispanics in Higher Education
Signing of AB 2813 (De La Torre) Lone Positive for HACU

SACRAMENTO, CA - The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) was disappointed that Governor Schwarzenegger chose to sign only one of the five bills HACU had supported that were on the Governor’s desk.  Among the important legislation that the Governor vetoed was: 

1) SB 160, the California DREAM Act (please see separate release on this bill);

2) SB 1563 (Escutia) The bill would have expressed legislative intent to enact legislation to establish a Community College Early Assessment Pilot Program for the purpose of providing high school pupils with an indicator of their readiness for college-level English and mathematics at the end of grade 11 and allowing high schools to work with pupils in grade 12 to elevate the skills of these pupils to a level expected of first-time community college freshman students;

3) AB 358 (Liu) This bill would have indicated the Legislature’s intent to set the Cal Grant awarded to students attending private institutions at 90% of the General Fund cost of educating a student at a four-year institution.  This would make the award for our students attending those institutions less arbitrary and less subject to dramatic cuts during difficult financial times;

4) AB 751 (Chu) This bill would have required the private purveyors of college financial aid and scholarship advising services to register and post a bond with the California Student Aid Commission (CSAC). In addition, under this bill CSAC would establish a Web site where individuals could report fraudulent activities and learn more about financial aid and scholarship fraud. Lastly, it would require contracts to be written in the primary language of the parent or student.

The Governor did sign AB 2813 (De La Torre) AB 2813 will increase the availability of financial aid to benefit Hispanic students by raising the age cap for the California Community College Transfer Entitlement Program from 24 to 27.  Hispanic students tend to be older re-entry students; increasing the age cap will make a larger number of Hispanic students eligible for an award.

“The Governor had signed a budget which benefited higher education in California, so we were disappointed that he chose to sign only one of the five bills we were supporting.  HACU will continue to work hard to advocate for policies that increase access to higher education for Latinos in the state,” said Antonio Flores, President and CEO of HACU. 

Currently, HACU has over 97 members in the state of California and in 2005 opened a regional office located in Sacramento to handle Hispanic higher education legislative and policy issues in the western region of the U.S.

For more information, please contact HACU's Western Regional Office at 916-442-0392 or wro@hacu.net.

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