en t State boosts scholarship program

By Mikhail Zinshteyn CalMatters

California cemented its status among the most affordable states to earn a bachelor’s degree after lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom fulfilled their promise to expand the state’s Middle Class Scholarship program by another $227 million in this year’s budget deal.

That overhauled scholarship, which debuted last year, is now a $859 million juggernaut. It’s also a growing slice of the state’s financial aid pie: Between 2016 and 2022, California lawmakers poured roughly $1.4 billion more into grants and scholarships, bringing the state’s total contribution to around $3.5 billion.

Using new data that examines how the Middle Class Scholarship helped students in its first year, a CalMatters analysis shows that the grant worked largely as intended, sending more money to students of higher-income families.

But the program has frustrated some advocacy groups, who want the state to spend more on lower-income students, especially those who are ineligible for existing state financial aid. For lawmakers grappling with a shaky state financial outlook while also attempting to rein in the cost of college, this is a tough needle to thread.

The scholarship itself had growing pains in its first year. Many students who expected aid at the start of the 2022-23 academic year received their money months later as campuses and the state agency running the program rushed to jump-start a complicated program in a short amount of time.

Here’s the latest information and what you need to know about financial aid in California.

Who and how much?

Because of the Middle Class Scholarship, 302,000 students received an average of $1,970 more dollars toward their education in the 2022-23 academic year, according to data

Teen suspect’s hearings stay open to public, media

By Lauren Keene Enterprise staff writer

WOODLAND — Juvenile court proceedings for a Woodland teen accused of causing a fatal three-car collision will remain open to the public and the media, a Yolo Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday. Judge Janene Beronio struck down a courtroom closure motion from the 13-year-old defendant’s attorney, Martina Avalos, who contended that ongoing news coverage of the case brings undue prejudice upon her client.

CalMatters obtained from the state’s financial aid agency, the California Student Aid Commission.

Students from families with higher incomes received more money than those from lower incomes by design. That’s because students from wealthier families receive less financial

See SCHOLARSHIP, Page A5