»PART I

By Charly SHELTON

The California State Legislature passed a $214.8 billion budget deal last Thursday. Governor Gavin Newsom has until next Tuesday, June 25, to either sign the budget into effect or veto it, as a whole or in part through line-item veto. Within the budget are many improvements and allocations of funds for homelessness, health care for undocumented immigrants and education for K-12 students and continuing education. Over the next few weeks, CVW will be looking at some of the aspects included in the new budget, starting this week with an issue close to the hearts of most recent high school graduates – free college tuition.

The new budget allocates nearly $48 million to provide a second year of tuition-free community college to all first-time students of the state who take a full class load. In last year’s budget, one year of tuition-free community college was granted through AB 19 and this year it was expanded to provide two years – enough time to finish an associate degree or prepare for transfer to a four-year university.

“I think you have to remember that initially community colleges were free. It was not that long ago, 20 years ago, [that] community colleges were free. I think it’s an excellent idea to go back to that. You know generations of Californians benefited from that opportunity and now, when the economy demands more education from our students, we have to provide that,” said State Senator Anthony Portantino. “That’s a benefit to the economy, a benefit for the health and welfare of California, and it certainly benefits those students.”

Governor Newsom is expected to sign the budget by Tuesday and it would go into effect for the next fiscal year, which begins on July 1 of this year.

Next week we’ll continue examining the budget’s items and allocations, and have a decision on the signing or vetoing of the budget by the governor.

  Charly Shelton