Children of the rich won't qualify, but students don't have to be poor. If that student later transfers to a four-year school, he or she will receive full tuition plus the same stipend for additional expenses. All of California seems to be in a swoon. Every legislator voted for it. Newspapers are lavishing praise.
College administrators are ecstatic.
Promoting mediocrity on behalf of middle-class kids would be a more accurate description. Low-income students are already served by federal, state, private and university programs, and California offered no evidence that financial need was a barrier to college attendance. More low-income students will attend college only when they have the skills to do the work demanded. The main beneficiaries of the new policy are thus likely to be middle-class students who have traditionally had limited access to scholarships. This will especially be the case if colleges use funds typically reserved for low-income applicants to help the financially unchallenged.