David Paul Morris/Stringer/Getty Images Lawmakers are attempting to expand the Cal Grant program, a student financial aid program in California. Hundreds of thousands of additional California students, particularly older students, could become eligible for financial aid through a proposed overhaul to the state's grant program. Two Democratic California assembly members -- Jose Medina of Riverside County and Kevin McCarty of Sacramento -- recently introduced a bill intended to simplify the Cal Grant program and expand eligibility to nearly 200,000 additional students. “We really have been rationing access to this Cal Grant program for the past few years, and we created a very unique system here to slice and dice people out, and we should be focusing on bringing people in,” McCarty said Thursday during a roundtable discussion on the proposal. “This is really good, not just for students and helping them graduate with less debt, but really for helping our economy.”