Having made a campaign pledge to do so, Gov. Jerry Brown signed the California DREAM Act yesterday.
Well, half of it.
During a town hall meeting at Los Angeles City College, Brown signed AB 130, the part of the two-bill package that gives illegal immigrants who live in California and attend state universities and community colleges access to private sources of financial aid. Last year in the University of California system, more than $72 million in private gifts and endowments was up for grabs.
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Though the heftier–and much more controversial–bill is AB 131, the second half of the package that would allow these same students to also apply for state financial aid. That bill has not yet been taken up by the Senate, but Brown said he was “positively inclined” to sign it if and when it crosses his desk.
The California DREAM Act, authored by Assemblyman Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles), applies to less than one percent of the UC and Cal State student population. It's different from the federal DREAM Act, which died in the U.S. Senate last year, as it only deals with education, and is not a path to citizenship.
