SCHOLARSHIP: Where to spend?

aid from other sources. The scholarship uses a formula that takes the total cost of college and deducts how much a student receives in financial aid. It also assumes a student works enough to earn about $8,000 a year.

For dependent students in households that earn more than $100,000 annually, an added formula is used to calculate how much their families can pay toward college. The assumption is that wealthier families have more money than poorer families to commit to college.

Students whose family incomes were between $150,000 and $200,000 received an average Middle Class Scholarship of roughly $2,800 — it was higher for UC students. For students whose families earned less than $50,000, their average scholarship was around $1,400.

Students will likely get more money going forward as the scholarship grows by another $227 million.

The scholarship complements the state’s marquee financial aid tool, the Cal Grant, which covers the instate tuition for UC and CSU students and provides cash aid to community college students. Students generally are eligible for both aid programs for up to four years of full-time enrollment.

The middle class scholarship is available to a far larger swath of students: those whose families earn as much as $217,000. The income cut-off for the Cal Grant is lower. Students in a family of four will receive a Cal Grant in 2023 if their families earn no more than $125,600, depending on the type of grant.

Lawmakers intend to eventually grow the scholarship so that any student who gets the state aid won’t have to borrow to attend a UC or CSU, a public university debt-free promise. That would require around $2 billion more dedicated to the scholarship annually.

Last year, the program was funded at about a quarter of its capacity, so students received about a quarter of the full amount they would have been awarded under the scholarship.

Different aid

But while the scholarship widens its reach to more students, it shuts out students who attend community colleges, as CalMatters previously reported.

Community college students are among the state’s poorest to pursue higher education. And though California posts the lowest community college tuition in the country, community college students still must find ways to afford rent, food and transportation.

Because students attending UC and Cal State campuses have access to more state, federal and institutional financial aid, often community college students end up paying more for their education than students enrolled at California’s public universities, according to a series of reports by the Californiabased Institute for College Access & Success.

Leaving out community college students from the debt-free promise of the Middle Class Scholarship excludes most of California’s public postsecondary students, who outnumber UC and CSU students nearly 3 to 1.

Lawmakers have expanded the Cal Grant to more than 100,000 additional community college students in recent years, but the state is due to

Lois Isabel (Smith) Spafford

May 17, 1930 — June 12, 2023

Lois Isabel Spafford passed after a prolonged illness with dementia. The family would like to give a special thank you to Richie, Bea and Anna who took exceptional care of Lois in Walnut Creek for close to 9 years.

Lois was born in San Jose to Stanley B. Smith and Isabel Rowell Smith. She was the youngest of four children. Her father had a prune and apricot orchard and later started Orchard Supply Hardware in 1931. Growing up, Lois cut apricots for drying and enjoyed the extended family living in and around Campbell.

Lois graduated from Campbell High School where her brother taught, and her grandfather was the first principal.

She entered UC Davis in 1948 and received her bachelor’s degree in 1952 and her teaching credential in 1953. While at UC Davis she was active in student body activities, served on the Executive council of the Picnic Day board and marched in the Cal Aggie band before became an allmale organization.

It was at UC Davis where she met her husband Ed decide next spring whether to expand the aid program so that practically any student with low-enough family income could get the grant, which follows students to a UC or CSU if they transfer. A key unknown: whether the state will have the funds to do it.

Some advocates think the state should put a pause on growing the Middle Class Scholarship and instead continue expanding the number of students eligible for the Cal Grant, including community college students. “It is critical that California approach college affordability equitably by prioritizing students with the least resources,” Education Trust — West and the Institute for College Access & Success wrote in May. “Fully funding Cal Grant reform instead of (Middle Class Scholarship) is by far the best approach.”

Income numbers

But while the state’s students from modest means already benefit a lot from financial aid, middle-class families often shoulder a larger load of college costs. Federal education data analyzed by CalMatters tells the tale. Depending on which income bands you look at, California ranks fourth or fifth among all states in how much students from families earning less than $75,000 had to pay for expenses like tuition, housing and food after deducting all their state, federal and campus financial aid — a concept known as “net price.” However, affordability plummeted for students whose families earned more than $110,000. For that group, California ranked 42nd.