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How do you spell tuition relief?

Byuclafaculty

Apparently, M-I-D-D-L-E  C-L-A-S-S  S-C-H-O-L-A-R-S-H-I-P:

From the Contra Costa Times: With the governor’s signature this week, California college students from middle-income families will soon be in line for a tuition discount. The state-funded Middle Class Scholarship will buffer tens of thousands of students from UC’s and Cal State’s frequent and unpredictable fee hikes… When the program begins in 2014 it will bring some relief to California’s middle-class families who have watched helplessly in recent years as public tuition and fees have nearly doubled since 2007. It will offer sliding-scale discounts of up to 40 percent for families who earn $150,000 or less and don’t qualify for Cal Grants, which support lower-income students. It was a separate bill signed Monday as part of the state budget… About 130,000 public university undergraduates each year will be eligible, according to the state’s estimate…

(O)bservers note that the scholarship is just another patch on the state’s education finance predicament… Even at the maximum discounted rate of 40 percent, a student pays more than in 2008-09. The scholarship covers only systemwide tuition and fees — not room and board, living expenses, textbooks or campus fees, which average nearly $20,000 a year. And, given the state’s perennial budget gyrations, the scholarship could prove an unreliable financial aid. If the governor’s May budget proposal shows a deficit, the program’s funding — $305 million when fully implemented in 2017 — could drop by as much as one third…
Full story at www.contracostatimes.com/breaking-news/ci_23607228/california-middle-class-scholarships-soon-available-college-students.

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