Californians Win One on Fewer In-State UC Admissions; Lose One, SB-10

The Win: Last week, Sacramento legislators announced a new budget deal that would offer an $18.5 million funding incentive to the University of California if it enrolls an additional 2,500 in-state students for the 2017-2018 academic year. The Assembly passed a bill that would cap nonresident out-of-state and international students at 10 percent of total undergraduate enrollment by 2022-2023, substantially lower than the current 15.5 percent. AB 1711 now advances to the Senate.

UCLA campus has one of nation’s highest international enrollments.

Last year, UC President Janet Napolitano enraged California’s taxpayers that help fund the University and who feel their children should get admission priority when she defiantly told an Assembly subcommittee hearing that the state is not in a financial position to absorb more California students than it’s currently serving.

The accelerating total of out-of-state admissions has been a festering sore among California families who feel, correctly, that their college-bound children are often ignored in favor of higher-paying out-of-state students. State auditor Elaine Howle confirmed parents’ fears when her report issued this spring found that UC had purposely lowered out-of-state admission requirements, and had “failed to put the needs of residents first.”

Despite ample evidence to the contrary, Napolitano criticized Howle’s conclusions as “disappointingly pre-baked” and “unfair and unwarranted.”

The Loss: Gov. Jerry Brown signed SB-10 which will allow the state to petition the federal government to allow California’s illegal immigrants to participate in Obamacare through Covered California if they use their own money. When President Obama pressured Congress to pass the Affordable Care Act, he promised that illegal aliens would be excluded.

Always a pioneer in extending entitlements to illegal aliens, California is the first state to request an ACA waiver, but critics anticipate that if it wins federal approval, other states will soon follow. Should California and other states’ illegal immigrants eventually be ACA-authorized, access to medical attention will be correspondingly less available as usage among the illegal alien community will soar, but without an equivalent increase in available services.