California legislature made a policy change with Senate Bill (SB) 1644 (2000), shifting Cal Grant Programs to focus on entitlement; counter to the national trend of merit based grant programs. This article describes a study examining effectiveness and extent to which SB 1644 is meeting its legislative objectives: increase in higher education opportunities and lower student loan debt. Additionally, demographic characteristic differences of student populations seeking higher education opportunities (20-year period) and factors influencing California policy to embrace entitlement grants are presented. The national implication and political (value) question derived from this study was: Is higher education a right or a privilege?