Public postsecondary education: exemption from nonresident tuition.

(1) Existing law requires that a person, other than a nonimmigrant alien, as defined, who has attended high school in California for 3 or more years, who has graduated from a California high school or attained the equivalent thereof, who has registered at or attends an accredited institution of higher education in California not earlier than the fall semester or quarter of the 2001–02 academic year, and who, if he or she is an alien without lawful immigration status, has filed an affidavit as specified, be exempt from paying nonresident tuition at the California Community Colleges and the California State University. This bill, instead, would authorize the Trustees of the California State University and the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges to exempt a person, other than a nonimmigrant alien, who meets specified requirements, from paying nonresident tuition at the California State University and the California Community Colleges. (2) Existing law authorizes a community college district to report a student exempt from nonresident tuition under these provisions as a full-time equivalent student for purposes of receiving state apportionments. This bill, instead, would prohibit a community college district and the California State University from reporting, as a state-supported full-time equivalent student, a student exempt from nonresident tuition under these provisions for apportionment purposes. (3) Existing law also requires the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges and the Trustees of the California State University to prescribe rules and regulations for the implementation of the nonresident tuition exemption provisions. This bill would authorize, rather than require, the board of governors and the trustees to prescribe these rules and regulations.