CA Dream Act..

http://www.mercurynews.com/politics-...nclick_check=1

"A bill that would grant undocumented California students access to financial aid for higher education is being revived in the state Legislature this week.

The California Dream Act would allow students who are illegal immigrants to benefit from the same financial aid as other California students attending the state's public colleges and universities.

Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, introduced the bill Tuesday based on one he first proposed as a state senator in 2006. The previous version passed in the state Senate and Assembly but was vetoed three times by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, who said it was too costly given the state's precarious finances.

Supporters hope they will have better luck now that Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, is in office.

"He did say before November, before the election, he would sign it," Cedillo spokesman Conrado Terrazas said. "We are hoping that he will follow through."

Cedillo this year is splitting his proposal into two bills, one of which he said "will not cost one cent to the state of California." That bill, AB 130, would make students who are illegal immigrants eligible for the community colleges' Board of Governors fee waiver and other student aid programs administered by the public institutions they attend. Since the aid packages come out of a private pool, making more students eligible does not increase the cost to the state, Cedillo said.

A separate bill, AB
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131, would allow undocumented students, if they are California residents, to apply for Cal Grants, a state-funded program that gives low-income students as much as $4,370 a year if they enroll in the California State University system or up to $11,124 a year in the UC system.

The move comes a day after Brown announced $12.5 billion in planned budget cuts, including about $1.4 billion in cuts to higher education.

Republican state lawmakers have not seen the bill yet but are likely to oppose it, as they have in the past, said Jann Taber, spokeswoman for state Senate GOP Minority Leader Bob Dutton of Rancho Cucamonga.

The state Dream Act would help undocumented students become productive members of society, said Kate Jeffery, director of student financial support for the 10-campus UC system. "For that category of student, it would fill a big gap," she said.

If his bill is approved, Cedillo said California would be the third state to offer financial aid to undocumented students, after Texas and New Mexico."

Even though these State "DREAM Acts" do not offer citizenship, they do something very important. They increase opportunities for higher education and exposure for dreamers. If every eligible dreamer could influence approximate 100 USC's to actively support the national DREAM effort (a modest facebook, etc. number), that would be approximately one third of the population. Of course, that number could grow much higher. The point is, these state acts not only keep the issue of DREAM alive as a political topic, but they also serve as a way to increase grass roots organizing (expanding student movements, etc.). The way to secure the ultimate passage of DREAM, is to create an atmosphere of overwhelming public support for DREAM, one that drowns out the hateful opposition.