New California budget would stop short of ‘debt-free’ college but takes smaller steps on costs
Assembly Democrats had proposed new scholarships—which would supplement existing aid programs—that would offset the cost of room and board, textbooks and other living expenses that tend to be bigger drivers of college costs than tuition. The fully implemented plan would cost $1.6 billion per year; legislators had suggested phasing in the program over five years, with an initial cost of $320 million. The budget doesn’t put any money toward such grants. Instead, it directs the California Student Aid Commission to consider how to consolidate existing scholarships in ways that would lower students’ overall college costs, including non-tuition expenses such as housing and transportation.
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by Tribune News Service, The San Francisco Examiner.