Dr. Ronald Ellis, California Baptist University president, petitioned for the repeal of cuts to the Cal Grant March 7 in a letter sent to the chair of the California Assembly budget subcommittee, and shared with the CBU community in an email.
In the letter to Kevin McCarty, chair of the Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 2 on Education Finance, Ellis addressed the need for the restoration of the original Cal Grant levels.
Currently, students eligible for the Cal Grant receive $8,800 per year on average. If maximum levels were restored, the Cal Grant would increase to $9,708.
“Cal Grants are an opportunity for these students to attend college in California where they will live, learn and contribute to their home state,” he wrote in the letter. “It is imperative that these low-income students have access to a California institution where they are likely to succeed and, most importantly, remain in the state for their higher education.”
CBU is home to 1,708 students benefiting from the Cal Grant, Ellis said in the letter.
He added if lawmakers repealed previous cuts and reductions to the Cal Grant, the state would save more money by giving more low-income students access to private higher education. The alternative, receiving the Cal Grant at its current levels plus a state subsidy while going to a University of California or California State University, would cost more in the long run.
Moses Ventura, junior nursing major, said the Cal Grant has been beneficial in his time at CBU, and said he supports raising it to the maximum level.
“It’d make it possible to have to take out less amount of loans and would really help in the long run,” Ventura said.
