They are some of California's most generous entitlements -- millions of dollars in grants every year for thousands of low-and moderate-income college students who keep at least average grades.
Even in a run of bad budget years, the Cal Grant program -- which can provide eligible students as much as $9,700 a year -- has been spared the deep cuts that have hit nearly every other facet of public higher education. The program's popularity with politicians in both parties has higher education leaders optimistic that Cal Grants will survive under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as well.

Cal Grant administrators worry that their good news might get lost in all the noise about steep tuition increases at the University of California, California State University and the community colleges while UC and CSU are turning away qualified students to keep enrollment numbers static.

"There is money available for college," said Carole Solov, spokeswoman for the California Student Aid Commission, the state agency that runs the Cal Grant and other financial aid programs. "That's what we want students and parents to know, especially as fees have gone up so much and there is a great deal of anxiety about paying for higher education."

The commission -- using fast food outlets and movie theaters to get the word out -- expects to award more than $600 million in grants for the school year that opens in the fall of 2004. That's enough money, Solov said, to cover up to 220,000 grants of varying amounts. The Cal Grant application season opened Thursday and runs through March 2.

Cal Grants have been around in some form since the mid-1950s, but during the boom times of the late 1990s, legislators expanded the program dramatically to capture thousands of college-bound students.

With no dissenting votes, lawmakers turned Cal Grants into an entitlement that guaranteed money to financially needy students who are either recent high school graduates with at least a 2.0 GPA or community college students transferring to a four-year school who are younger than 24 and have at least a 2.4 GPA.

The grants do not have to be repaid and can be used at nearly every public, private and vocational school in California.

But for all the money that state politicians have set aside for Cal Grants since the program was expanded in 2000, millions have gone untapped every year. With more money than eligible applicants, commission officials have had to return the unused funds to the state's general fund. Just last month, they shipped back $50 million after Schwarzenegger ordered the unused funds returned.

One higher education analyst and some lawmakers have suggested that the unspent money in the entitlement program ought to instead be used to expand a smaller Cal Grant program -- which offers 22,500 grants a year on a competitive basis to students older than 24.

The commission reported last year that more than 41,000 needy and academically qualified students applied but did not receive competitive awards.

"The unmet need is for older students who aren't eligible for the entitlement program," said Steve Boilard, director of the higher education division for the independent Legislative Analyst's Office. "If you are a 26-year-old who worked and then wants to go back to school, it's very hard to get that kind of help."

For 19-year-old Jimin Song, getting roughly $6,000 a year from the Cal Grant program allowed the Highlands High School graduate and first-generation college student to go directly to the University of California, Davis. Her Cal Grant is the linchpin of a financial aid package that includes other grants and scholarships.

"Without it, I might not have even been able to go to community college right away," Song said. "My parents couldn't afford to pay for any college, so I had to figure out how to do it myself.

"This is free money you can get if you just apply on time."

Cal Grants
For information about Cal Grants and other financial aid, visit the California Student Aid Commission: www.csac.ca.gov or www.calgrants.org. For federal financial aid forms necessary to apply for Cal Grants: www.fafsa.ed.gov.