Berkeley, Calif. — Community-college students in California may see their state student-aid grants delayed because lawmakers are months late agreeing on a state budget.

California is the only state in the nation that has still not agreed on a budget for the current fiscal year. Without a budget, the state will withhold money for Cal Grants from as many as 86,000 community-college students, which could lead some of them not to enroll, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The University of California and California State University systems have said they will front the grant money to low-income students. But a majority of the community-college system’s 110 campuses cannot afford to do that, and some of their students may be left without enough money to start the academic year.

“Given that these are the state’s neediest students who rely on these funds to buy books and bus passes and make other critical beginning-of-the-semester purchases, it’s a certainty that the lack of a Cal Grant payment acted as a barrier to some students’ coming back to school,” Erik Skinner, the community-college system’s vice chancellor for fiscal policy, told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Some campuses are attempting to relieve the problem by processing Pell Grants and other financial aid more quickly, according to the Chronicle. But officials on some campuses said their hands were largely tied until a state budget was passed. —Josh Keller