By Wyatt Buchanan

SACRAMENTO — Students in California’s public colleges and universities, who have seen their tuition and fees rise continuously, could see some relief as early as this fall under bills passed in each house of the Legislature on Wednesday.

Lawmakers in the Assembly and Senate approved separate measures that would provide a generous tuition break for middle-class students at the University of California and California State University, and create an online library to reduce the costs of college textbooks.

Both moves come after lawmakers cut the state’s higher education budget by hundreds of millions of dollars over the past few years, which has led to increases in tuition and fees along with rising student unrest on campuses across California.

Assembly Speaker John Pérez, who introduced AB 1501, which he is calling the “Middle Class Scholarship,” noted the ballooning tuition costs in making the case for his proposal.

“This means for thousands of California families, higher education entails increasingly difficult trade-offs. Either the parents must make enormous financial sacrifices to pay for their children’s education, or the students must shoulder a level of debt that severely limits their postgraduation opportunities,” Pérez said.

“For many Californians those trade-offs are too great and they make the reluctant decision to forgo higher education altogether.”

The Assembly passed the bill 55-17, with four Republicans in favor. The bill sets up the technical structure of administering the grants, which would provide significant aid to students whose families make less than $150,000 but too much to qualify for a Cal Grant.

However, a second bill that comprises a significant part of the proposal — a change in the tax code that would generate about $1 billion annually to pay for the grants — has yet to be heard by the Assembly. Pérez said he is confident he has the necessary Republican support to pass that measure, as it requires approval by two-thirds of lawmakers.

He did not say when that bill will be heard.

Opposed to funding

At least one Republican who voted for the bill passed Wednesday, however, said she would oppose the measure to fund the plan.

Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen, R-Modesto, said the reduction in state support for higher education has been “criminal,” but she said the speaker’s plan to pay for his proposal could hurt the prospects for students finding work after they graduate.

“The problem I see … is this really does pit jobs against college students. Students graduating from college already have a really difficult time finding jobs,” Olsen said.

Pérez wants to pay for the plan by eliminating a corporate tax break that the Legislature approved in 2009 as part of budget negotiations between Democrats and Republicans. That tax break allows corporations to choose the less costly of two formulas for calculating the taxes they owe.

Olsen said the change could cause employers to move jobs out of the state and said her message to students regarding her opposition is, “short-term gain that leads to long-term pain is not a net positive.”

Under the plan, students who qualify would see the cost of their tuition and fees drop by two-thirds, bringing it to below what it was nearly a decade ago.

It would amount to a $4,000 annual savings for California State University students and just over $8,100 for students attending the University of California, and would take effect as soon as this fall. Both new students and current students would be eligible if they do not already qualify for financial aid.

This month, Gov. Jerry Brown said he would sign the proposal into law if it made it through the Legislature, though he expressed doubts of that happening. If both pieces are approved by the Assembly, they probably will face tougher opposition in the Senate.

Pérez acknowledged that, but said the prospects in the other chamber are “increasingly good.”

On the Senate side

In the Senate Wednesday, lawmakers gave overwhelming bipartisan approval to two bills, SB 1052 and SB 1053, which would establish an online digital library for the 50 most-common lower-division courses in the UC and CSU systems, along with the state’s community colleges.

Both bills passed 30-2. Under the proposal, which includes the creation of a panel to set guidelines, students would have free access to the digital textbooks or could get a printed copy for about $20 per book. Faculty members would not be required to use the textbooks in the free library for their courses, however.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, who introduced both measures, said, “As college students and their families struggle with college costs in this difficult time, let’s do what we can with the tools that we have.”

The program is expected to cost the state several million dollars to start, with ongoing costs to run the library, according to a Senate analysis. The bills contain no funding mechanisms, and the program would not commence unless there is specific funding in the budget or unless there are federal or private monies available.

College students who have watched their bills soar said Wednesday’s developments were exciting changes and that their efforts to push lawmakers to give financial relief to students had paid off.

“With these bills being considered and having a pretty good chance of passing it really means that Sacramento has listened to students,” said Patrick Manh Le, a fourth-year student at UC Irvine and undergraduate chairman for the UC Student Association.

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