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CA DREAM Act Veto - as told by an AB540 student

Cora C., an AB 540 student and activist, provided this message about the Governor's veto of the California DREAM Act. PowerPAC is proud to support these students and their efforts.

Dear California Dream Act Supporters:

As you already know, SB 1, The California Dream Act was vetoed.

The message was as follows:

"At a time when segments of California public higher education, the University of California and the California State University, are raising fees on all students attending college in order to maintain the quality of education provided, it would not be prudent to place additional strain on the General Fund to accord the new benefit of providing state subsidized financial aid to students without lawful immigration status. Under existing law, undocumented students, who meet the required criteria, already qualify for the lower in-state tuition rate while attending California public colleges and universities."

1) This argument is completely erroneous given that the institutions he is concerned for (UC and CSU) support the bill and even provided letters to the Governor urging him to sign the bill.

2) The reason for fee increases is partially due the Governor's office. He is setting the economic strain.

3) He is saying it's ok if we and our parent's work for the economy, but we are s.o.l if you want to become educated.

4) Arnold says we should settle for AB540.... we shouldn't. AB540 was the starting point of governmental and societal acknowledgment of undocumented students. This law provides a path --the first stepping stone for the attainment of academic opportunity and community progress. Nevertheless, the path is not yet completed; policy needs to continue shifting, in order to accommodate the ever-changing societal needs.

Lastly, this bill was set up to appease the concerns of his office. The Governor's office received various cost analysis reports, that specifically stated this would not bring about any strain on the financial assistance program. Senator Cedillo and his office, worked intensely to ensure these concerns were addressed within the language of the bill. Speaker Nunez's office made sure to include SB 1in the remarks the Speaker made at the UC Regents meeting and the Congreso Latino.

Honestly, I am angry and sad. However, I am incredibly proud of the work we did and the people I met. The campaign for the SB 1, was a rollercoaster. Everything moved by so fast. At times, there was frustration and disappointment with the political world. Nevertheless, the work, passion, and commitment from so many campuses throughout the state were inspiring.

We got that bill to his desk. Student organizing managed to get Obama, and various other leaders at the state, national and international level to support this bill. We demonstrated that we are capable of working and lobbying effectively for various pieces of legislation that affect our community of students at the state and federal level.

At the beginning, the campaign got the empty "we support you"... The California Dream Act had no true commitment from leaders in various sectors. This was all about student grassroots organizing.

Nevertheless, this campaign created a HUGE buzz. This would not have been possible without your work (letters, phone calls, faxes, lobby visits, Sacramento trips and many other actions).

So... maybe the bill was not signed, but we did manage to:

• Meet many great students/organizers.
• We made new friends and created an unprecedented coalition of SB 1 advocates including: UCSA, CSSA, Majority for Justice, PowerPAC, The Courage Campaign, American-Islamic Relations, of Greater Los Angeles (CAIR-LA),Vote Hope, various faith and labor groups, print media support (Sac Bee, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury, LA Times, La Opinion and various others). In addition to all that SB1 and students had a positive buzz online.
• Students were able to get a seat at the table and speak their minds with government and community leadership without a middle person.
• Students negotiated with the Speaker of the Senate, Speaker of the Assembly, various committee chairs, the governor… and met amazing community leaders, business leaders and many other people and orgs...

Moreover, these months served as a testament of the tremendous capacity and commitment students have for rising above the odds with intelligence, pragmatism, passion and hope. We still have much work at the state and federal level. There is a lot of bigotry out there that we need to tackle, but I know that we can do it.

Always in Solidarity,
Cora C.

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