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Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Amendment would restrict in-state tuition
Plan ties payment rate to legal status
By David Rice
JOURNAL RALEIGH BUREAU

An amendment added to the $17 billion budget on the floor of the N.C. Senate last week could make it harder for immigrants to go to community college in North Carolina unless they achieve status as legal immigrants.

Current state law says that if an undocumented immigrant has lived in North Carolina for a year and has petitioned the federal government for legal status, he or she qualifies for in-state tuition at the state's 58 community colleges.

But the amendment offered by Sen. Neal Hunt, R-Wake, would offer in-state tuition rates only to those immigrants who are "lawfully present" in the state.

"If you're not a legal resident, you cannot get in-state tuition," Hunt said yesterday. "If you have a visa that's expired, then you're not lawful, whether you've applied (for legal status) or not."

The difference in tuition is substantial: Tuition this year for in-state students is $38 a semester hour, up to a maximum of $608 a semester. Out-of-state students pay $211 a semester hour and a maximum of $3,367 a semester.

The community-college system says that at least 95 percent of its students are considered in-state students. It says that 2.6 percent of its "curriculum" students and 8.2 percent of its continuing-education students are Hispanic, but it does not track their immigration status.

Officials with the state community-college system issued a memo to colleges in August advising them that they could admit students, but any undocumented students must be charged out-of-state tuition rates to comply with federal law.

"We were just trying to make it conform to what everybody thought it already was," Hunt said. "Apparently it's no problem at all in the community-college system. This would keep it from being a problem."

The move comes as several states look at how to deal with tuition for the children of immigrants.

Arguments are scheduled to begin in federal court in Topeka today over a Kansas law that allows immigrant children who have spent three years at a Kansas high school and are pursuing U.S. citizenship to pay in-state tuition at state universities.

Five days after it was adopted by a 49-0 vote on the floor of the N.C. Senate, some analysts were still trying to digest the amendment and its significance yesterday.

A spokeswoman for El Pueblo, a Latino advocacy group, declined to comment on the amendment, saying that the group is still studying it.

But as the Senate budget heads to the House for consideration, others urged caution in putting up barriers to the education of Hispanic and other immigrants.

"I just don't understand why we would make it tougher on them," said Rep. John Sauls, R-Lee, a lead sponsor of a House bill that would give in-state tuition at community colleges and state universities if students have spent four years in a North Carolina high school and applied for legal status.

"Our bill was to help them become educated, taxpaying citizens," Sauls said. "This just puts another roadblock in front of these children."

The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation has paid for a Hispanic outreach initiative by the community-college system.

And Thomas Ross, the foundation's president, said that legislators should be cautious about making it harder to educate workers who are "integral" parts of the food-processing, hospitality, construction and landscaping industries.

"They're an integral part of the economy. And many of them have brought children with them who are not here by their own choice," Ross said. "Those people in many cases are going to be our work force of the future.

"There is a cost to that influx of immigrants. But there's also a benefit in filling jobs that are hard to fill," he said. "These are complex issues that we ought to think about, and not make quick decisions."

An anti-immigration group, Americans for Legal Immigration, said it will start a campaign to keep the provision barring in-state tuition for undocumented aliens in the budget in the House. The group pointed to how Forsyth Technical Community College recently announced it would offer in-state tuition rates to immigrant students.

"Legislators need to know it is there and what it means to North Carolina's legal citizens that overwhelmingly oppose illegal aliens receiving in-state tuition rates," said William Gheen, the group's president in North Carolina.

"It looks like Forsyth Community College may have to change its ways," he said.

• David Rice can be reached in Raleigh at (919) 833-9056 or at drice@wsjournal.com