(Sacramento) – Assemblymember Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles) joined Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount), members of the Assembly Budget and Higher Education Committees, students and parents for a news conference to announce a higher education budget package that will reduce student debt and make college affordability a reality for millions of students. “As the former President of the largest community college district in the nation, and as someone who heavily relied upon financial aid in college myself, I know how important affordability is to students,” said Assemblymember Santiago. The four components of the Degrees Not Debts package are: Make Community Colleges ‘tuition free’ for one year for any full time in-state student; Expand the successful ‘Success Grants’ program for CCC students; Reject Governor Brown’s proposal to eliminate the ‘Middle Class Scholarship’; and Create the ’Degrees Not Debt Scholarship’ to address non-tuition related costs associated with attending the UC or CSU. Here’s more in this Assembly Access video.