California Budget Deficit Threatens Financial Aid Expansion: State Legislative Analyst

The expansion of financial aid for California’s college and university students may not happen next year as planned due to insufficient revenue, according to state analysts.
Gov. Gavin Newsom pledged in his 2022-23 fiscal year budget to expand access and eligibility to Cal Grant, the state’s financial aid program for college and university students, beginning in 2024.
However, the state Legislative Analyst’s Office indicated in a March 14 memo (pdf) to a state Assembly budget subcommittee on education finance, that “the state now faces a budget problem.”
When Newsom enacted the state’s 2022-23 budget last summer, there was, at that time, “a notable surplus,” analysts wrote in the memo….