Some observers asked whether the governor was using the popular Cal Grant program as a bargaining chip to get the Democratic-controlled Legislature to make other concessions. But state and higher education officials said the program really could be axed, if only because the alternatives are even more dire. "This is not a test," said Palmer.
"We're taking it very seriously," said Jonathan Brown, president of the Assn. of Independent California Colleges and Universities.
Some educators said the cutbacks would wipe out any gains from federal stimulus money for higher education.
Because the potential effect is so sweeping, those interviewed said, it's hard to assess how students might respond, but they may have to work more, live at home, go more deeply into debt or beseech their families for further sacrifices.
But at least one student said she could run out of options.
BreeAnna Banks, 17, of Carson had been counting on her $1,500 Cal Grant award to help with her plans to enter Mount St. Mary's College in downtown Los Angeles as a freshman in August.
Her father is a Boeing mechanic, and her mother, SharRon Banks, is a homemaker raising seven children, including four the family adopted because their birth mother couldn't care for them. Two of the children are disabled and need medicine, and the family just emerged from a bad loan foreclosure drama that sent their house payments soaring.
"We were eating rice and pot pies," SharRon Banks said.
BreeAnna said her family has only one car, so commuting is out, the college is tapped out of aid and loans could be hard to get.
"I understand California needs money . . . but this is taking away many people's opportunity to become something in life," she said.
"People in my community look around and say college must just be for people who have a lot of money. Maybe they feel Cal Grant is not a big factor in going to college, but it is.
"And I really want to go."
gale.holland@latimes.com
