The “Cal Grant Equity Framework” (the “Equity Framework”) aims to cover more of the entire cost of attendance, including tuition and fees and other expenses such as textbooks, housing, and meals. It consolidates existing programs into two, makes benefits more predictable, and moves GPA requirements closer to alignment with the federal standard for Pell grants. The California Student Aid Commission (CSAC) estimates the annual cost of the program to be $315 million and that it would benefit approximately 110,000 community college and 40,000 four-year students.
Our June 2022 working paper, “Projected Student Success and Economic Outcomes from the Cal Grant Equity Framework,” commissioned by Strategy Labs with support from Lumina Foundation for Education, uses CSAC’s cost and eligibility estimates as a starting point and projects the longer-term student success and economic benefits of the Equity Framework expansion based on the best academic research and empirical evidence available. The draft working paper and a brief summary are available below.