Thread: Bill allowing students legally in US to pay in-state tuition in Tennessee dead this s

In-state tuition for undocumented students fails in House


April 20, 2015


Dave Boucher


The Tennessee House of Representatives killed a bill to allow in-state tuition for undocumented students.

After more than an hour of debate, the House voted 49-47 on the bill. It takes 50 votes to pass a bill. The vote sends the bill back to the House Calendar and Rules Committee.

"I think our students are upset because we got so close. We were missing one vote," said Eben Cathey, an advocate for the bill who works with the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition.

"It's tough to get that close and not get 50 votes, but again it's been a long, uphill battle and we've made it this far. We passed the Senate, we just about got it through the House. This is a huge victory for us, even if we're a little upset that we didn't get it."

The only three members not to vote on the bill represent parts of Nashville: Republican Speaker Beth Harwell and Democratic Reps. Darren Jernigan and Bo Mitchell.

Harwell said she would have voted against the bill. She said she thought it presented a "slippery slope" for changes to law for immigrant students.

"It is a slippery slope that begins, and there are a lot of people who were naturally born here that are struggling to pay college tuitions. If we're going to do this for them, I do believe let's do away with out-of-state tuition altogether," Harwell said.

Harwell was in the chambers in the moments directly before and after the discussion and vote on the bill. She said she was out of the chambers at the moment of the vote to speak with a reporter from The Tennessean about a different story, but she had expected the bill to pass.

Mitchell told reporters he had planned to vote for the bill but had to attend a meeting for his day job as director of sales for a health care company.
"I had to attend that meeting. As citizen legislators unfortunately that happens," Mitchell told reporters.
Mitchell was in the House when it convened Wednesday afternoon. He said he had hoped the House would have delayed action on the bill.

Jernigan was registered as having an excused absence with the House clerk. He said he's had a meeting scheduled in Washington, D.C., for more than a month. Like Mitchell, he said he would have voted for the bill, but the Tennessee General Assembly is a "citizen legislature" and "we have jobs."

Right now a student that isn't a U.S. citizen must pay out-of-state tuition at a college or university in Tennessee, even if that student has lived in Tennessee for years. Advocates say that presents and unfair and undue burden to students trying to better themselves.

"This is about education. This isn't about any kind of immigration reform," said bill sponsor chairman Mark White, R-Memphis.

Opponents say the bill gives a costly benefit to people who aren't citizens.

"These individuals that we're talking about have no lawful status...it is not a pathway to citizenship until you begin that process," said Rep. David Alexander, R-Winchester.
He also argued the bill opens the door to allowing these students to be eligible for state financial aid. The bill says students would still not be eligible for state financial aid, like the HOPE or Tennessee Promise scholarships, or any federal financial aid.

Rep. Andy Holt, R-Dresden, fought the bill, trying to add three separate amendments.
All three would have expanded eligibility for in-state tuition in ways that would likely kill the bill. The amendments failed, but the votes were very close: two amendments failed by only a handful of votes.

Rep. Rick Womick, R-Rockvale, was a critic of the bill in the past. But Wednesday he said he thinks the bill creates a way for students to go through a stringent process to become documented in the state and receive an education.

"They're here from no fault of their own," Womick said.

"We have two choices: do we allow them to get an education, or do we say, 'No, you're off on your own.'"

Many if not most of the eligible students would be in or have gone through the Metro Nashville Public School system. Director of Schools Jesse Register blasted the House's decision to kill the bill.

"It is a shame that our students, sitting in the gallery as this vote took place, had to witness such a lack of leadership in our state lawmakers," Register said in a statement.

"Nashville is by far the city with the largest number of new American students in Tennessee, and this decision will have a tangible impact on our city as a whole. By essentially blocking their way into college, we are hampering their advancement in our community."

The Senate passed the bill by a 21-12 vote last week. The bill allows students who've received "deferred action" to be eligible for in-state tuition. Deferred action is typically provided to children of immigrant parents after the children have gone through an application process.

There are about 25,000 students who could be eligible for the in-state tuition with the deferred action change, according to information recently provided by the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition.

About 7,700 are eligible now, 8,000 could be eligible once they are old enough to apply for deferred action and an additional 7,000 need to complete the application process once they meet educational requirements, according to TIRRC.

Gov. Bill Haslam hasn't said how he feels about this specific bill. But he has said he thinks the idea has "merit."

There is already talk of trying to revive the bill this year. The House Calendar and Rules Committee could vote to send the bill back to the full House for another vote.

But White said House clerk Joe McCord said it will take two-thirds of the members to approve voting on the bill again due to a rule about resurrecting bills within seven days of the end of session.

http://www.tennessean.com/story/insession/2015/04/22/house-passes-in-state-tuition-bill/26180055/