CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / SACRAMENTO

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger renewed his push Tuesday for $3.6 million to help finance college education for the citizen soldiers of the California National Guard.

The governor called it “unconscionable” that California is the only state in the nation that does not provide tuition assistance to the men and women of the Guard.

“It’s a mark of shame on our great state,” Schwarzenegger said at a news conference in the Capitol rotunda. “It’s a terrible wrong that must be made right.”

A bill by state Sen. Dave Cogdill (R-Modesto) that proposes college assistance for the Guard is set for a hearing Wednesday in the Senate Education Committee.

Attempts in recent years by the governor and Republicans to win such funding have been turned back amid the state’s ongoing fiscal troubles.

In August, Democrats in the state Senate rejected efforts to launch and fund the program. They argued that the Bush administration’s expanded deployment of California Guard members in Afghanistan and Iraq put the responsibility on the federal government to pay for educational benefits.

State Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), who chairs the education panel, said she expects the bill to sail out of her committee, largely because the budget for 2009-10 already includes half of the funding.

“Overall there’s a feeling that these are benefits needed to acknowledge the service they have given to the country,” Romero said.

-- Eric Bailey