After thousands of students protested on March 1 at the Capitol Building in Sacramento in response to Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to cut approximately $307 million from Cal Grants, an Assembly subcommittee rejected the cut.

The decision was made after hearing testimony from students who traveled from different parts of CA.

The Cal Grant, an income-based financial aid program, helps low-income students pay for college.

Students who receive this grant come from families who make less than $50,000.

Under Brown’s proposal, many students would be affected by either losing their financial aid altogether, or having the amount they receive greatly reduced.

Leaving students with less to pay for their education.

As of now, the maximum a student can receive is $9,708 but with the proposal that Brown hoped to pass, students receiving the grant would only be receiving $5,472.

Students like Maria Gonzales, 21, nursing major, are happy to see that the proposal was defeated.

“I am so glad that Brown’s proposal was rejected,  I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have financial aid,” Gonzalez said. “ I probably wouldn’t be attending college.”

And that is exactly what some people feared at first, that students who had a reduced amount of financial aid or no longer received any would drop-out of college.

Vincent Robles, librarian, said that while he understands that there will always be budget cuts especially in this economy, he thinks that it is up to each college to make the necessary changes that will benefit everyone.

“We’ve grown to be selfish as society instead of giving up our luxuries to better benefit everyone,” Robles said.

Luis Chario, 24, political science major is very inspired and glad to know that there are students in California who care enough about their education to stand up in what they want and believe in.

“We need more students like that to stand up and protest against things like this,” Chario said. “We would all be suffering without our Cal Grants.”