Nursing education: service in state veterans homes.

Existing law establishes the Student Aid Commission as the primary state agency for the administration of state-authorized student financial aid programs available to students attending all segments of postsecondary education. Existing law establishes the State Nursing Assumption Program of Loans for Education (SNAPLE) , administered by the commission, under which any person enrolled in an institution of postsecondary education and participating in that loan assumption program is eligible to receive a conditional warrant for loan assumption, to be redeemed upon becoming employed as a full-time nursing faculty member at a California college or university. This bill would establish a loan assumption program for employees of state veterans' homes within the SNAPLE program. This program would provide loan assumption benefits to persons who fulfill agreements to work full time for 4 consecutive years as clinical registered nurses in state veterans' homes, as specified, that employ registered nurses. The program provides for a progressive assumption of the amount of a qualifying loan over 4 consecutive years of qualifying clinical registered nursing service, up to a total loan assumption of $20,000. The bill would require that, in any fiscal year, the commission award no more than the number of warrants that are authorized in the Budget Act for that fiscal year for the assumption of loans pursuant to the program. This program would become inoperative on July 1, 2019, and would be repealed on January 1, 2020.