Thousands of students lost their chance for free tuition under the state's expanded Cal Grant program because community colleges failed to file required grade reports, according to an Assembly report released Monday.
The colleges, including about two dozen around Los Angeles and every one in Orange and Ventura counties, submitted only a small number of grades to the California Student Aid Commission, the study found.
Grade reports were required for the 11,250 grants that the billion-dollar program set aside for community college students. College officials said the grade submission process is too complicated for many financial aid departments. Administrative problems have plagued the Cal Grant program since it was expanded a year ago, when the Legislature increased its funding by about $600 million over five years. In the summer, the program had to return about $35 million in unspent grant money to the state's general fund. College officials and state lawmakers said too few students applied for the grants because the program did a poor job promoting them.
The Assembly Higher Education Committee, in its report Monday, said the colleges expected 70,000 to 80,000 students to compete for the free tuition this semester. Instead, that number was slightly more than 50,000, and officials said the difference resulted mostly from the omitted grade reports.
The grants are awarded to qualified students according to financial need. Officials said many of the poorest students were left out of the process because of the unsubmitted grade reports.
More than 700 grants still are available, although they are expected to be given to students by November.
"We've got some of the neediest and highest-achieving students not receiving grants because their mentors just decided to pull them out of competition," said Paul Mitchell, legislative analyst for the Higher Education Committee.
Cal Grant administrators could not be reached for commen...