SACRAMENTO--For some of the so-called Dreamers, the illegal immigrants brought to the United States as children, California is still a land of opportunity, hopes and aspirations.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson and the California Student Aid Commission announced Wednesday that applications for the California Dream Act are down and urged all eligible students to apply for the program, which allows undocumented students to receive state financial aid for college. The application deadline is March 2.

“Eligible students should not hesitate to apply,” Torlakson said in a press release. “Time is critical and their dreams of college and 21st-century careers await. Fear or confusion should not keep students from applying for the financial aid they earned and deserve.”

Torlakson, a former East Bay high school science teacher and athletics coach, noted that applying for financial aid is often the first step toward attending college. As of Tuesday, the state Student Aid Commission had received about half the number of the applications it received last year by March 2. The California Dream Act is unrelated to the DACA program.

“We are strongly urging Dreamers to complete the California Dream Act Application,” Lupita Cortez Alcalá, executive director for the CSAC, which administers the California Dream Act, said in the prepared statement. “California’s strength lies in its diversity and we will continue to support and advance our efforts to prepare all California students for academic and economic prosperity.”

In the release, Torlakson spokesman Robert Oakes wrote the CSAC will take “all available legal precautions to protect California Dream Act information, which is used solely to determine eligibility for state financial aid and is not shared with any other government agency.”

Regardless of what happens at the federal level, state financial aid for Dreamers remains legal in California, he noted.

A Dreamer student does not need to be DACA-certified to be eligible for a public education or state financial aid, Oakes pointed out. Losing DACA status will not affect state financial aid eligibility, he added.

The National Center for Education Statistics reported in 2014-15 (the most recent data available) that the average federal grant to U.S. undergraduate students was $4,629; average state and local grants totaled $3,237; average institutional grants were $10,136; and the average student loan made directly to students was $6,977.

For more information, including Frequently Asked Questions for high school counselors, visit the California Dream Act website, at www.csac.ca.gov/dream_act.asp. (Source: The Mercury News)

Story Date: February 23, 2018