During a community forum on the Dream Act held at the Los Angeles City Community College, California Governor Jerry Brown today signed into law AB 130, which allows undocumented students to receive privately funded scholarships for their college education.
Effective January 1, 2012, this law will allow undocumented students at the University of California, California State University and community colleges to apply for grants and other scholarships that are not funded by state funds. Undocumented students will be able to pay in-state tuition as legal residents if they have attended a local high school for three or more years, earned a high school diploma, and are enrolled in a state-accredited college.
Democratic Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, author of AB 130, today said that while Brown's passage of this bill is a first step, he will move forward with plans to propose a bill that would also allow undocumented students to access state subsidies.
Cedillo had introduced the proposal on three previous occasions. Approved by the state legislature, it was vetoed by then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
