Cal State universities may up their college admissions requirements. But will that hurt low-income students?

LOS ANGELES - As a high school freshman, Jennifer Velasquez worked every day after classes helping her mom sell elotes, raspados and tacos from a street cart in East Los Angeles. With rent to pay and siblings to support, they would often work late into the night, sometimes until 2 a.m. - and she would get only a few hours of sleep.

It's why, in part, she failed Algebra I.

She repeated the class her sophomore year, and then moved on junior and senior years to Geometry and Algebra II, determined to meet the requirements for admission to the California State University system. She was accepted to California State, Los Angeles, and, last month, Velasquez, 19, became the first in her family to attend college.

"It was difficult," Velasquez said. "If I had to do four years of math, it would have been more difficult."

Velasquez is among the students, parents, educators and Los Angeles school board members who are opposed to a proposal by Cal State University to require