Thread: Gardenhire: Bill Allowing Undocumented Students to Pay In-State Tuition Dead

Gardenhire: Bill allowing undocumented students to pay in-state tuition dead



March 28, 2018

Andy Sher


NASHVILLE - A legislative effort to allow some undocumented students living in Tennessee pay in-state tuition rates at public colleges is dead for the year, a victim of election-year politics, said Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, the bill's sponsor.

Gardenhire said in an interview that his bill, scheduled to come up today in the Senate Education Committee, "won't be voted on this year."

"It's my understanding that the House leadership doesn't want to schedule it for a vote in the House Education Committee," the senator said, noting that per an agreement, Senate leadership wanted the bill to pass the House before taking it up themselves.

"The house for a third year in a row has killed it under the leadership of Beth Harwell, said Gardenhire of the Republican House speaker who is running for governor.

He called it "very disappointing, very disappointing when you've got al four [Republican] gubernatorial candidates against it and one of them in particular, Diane Black, being personal about it."

Lisa Sherman Nikolaus, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition, said the group and aspiring students were "extremely disappointed that the legislature failed once again to give all Tennessee graduates a fair shot at fulfilling their dreams to go to college."

With hundreds of undocumented Tennesseans graduating from high schools here "without opportunities for their future, she said, "at the very least, we had hoped our elected officials could have shown courage and moral leadership by bringing this bill to a vote.


"Instead," she said, "they prioritized careers over courage, fear over fairness and politics over principle. They have shown they are as ineffective and out of step with Tennesseans as Congress."
She praised Gardenhire and other supporters. Republican Gov. Bill Haslam, a one-time skeptic of the legislation, has thrown his support behind the measure.

U.S. Rep. Diane Black, a Gallatin Republican running for governor, last week blasted the legislation and appeared to take a personal swipe at Gardenhire, saying that "too many times, so-called conservatives get elected promising to fight against liberal policies, only to embrace them once in office. It's a shame to see our state legislature do just that."

Gardenhire questioned GOP candidates for breaking President Ronald Reagan's famous "11th Commandment" against publicly criticizing other Republicans.

"I'm surprised they did that without talking to both sides," the senator said, later adding, "I don't understand when people do what they do and hurt children."

The issue of in-state tuition has become a quest for Gardenhire who has advanced what he considers conservative arguments in favor of it, saying the students are already in Tennessee and aren't going anywhere. Thus, he says, their ability to obtain technical or university degrees will allow them to earn more, lead more productive lives and result in their being less of a societal and economic burden.

Gardenhire in 2015 got the original bill through the Senate, but it failed on the House floor by a single vote. Speaker Harwell was out of the chamber at the time but said she would have voted against it.

The bill was originally tied to students' participation in the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program which granted administrative relief to eligible immigrant youths brought to the U.S. as children.

But the issue has become more complicated with the election of President Donald Trump who jettisoned the DACA program with the program now entangled in back and forth disagreements between Trump and congressional Democrats on other immigration issues.

This year's version of the Gardenhire bill, sponsored in the House by Rep. Mark White, R-Memphis, grants in-state tuition rates to all students who spent at least three years in a Tennessee high school immediately prior to graduation or else graduated from a state high school, obtained a GED here or completed high school in a Tennessee home school program.

Currently, undocumented students can attend public colleges here but have to pay out-of-state tuition rates as high as triple the in-state rates. Gardenhire said many of the 30 students who came here today wept when he informed him that the bill would not be pursued further this year.

http://amp.timesfreepress.com/news/b...mpression=true

In-State Immigrant Tuition Bill Halted in Tennessee


March 28, 2018



NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A bill to offer in-state tuition for Tennesseepublic college students whose parents brought or kept them in the country illegally has stalled because House leadership won't let it go forward, the sponsor said Wednesday.

Republican Sen. Todd Gardenhire said Wednesday that the bill has become a "political hot potato," pointing out that the four major GOP gubernatorial candidates have said they oppose it, including House Speaker Beth Harwell.

Gardenhire took offense when U.S. Rep. Diane Black, another Republican candidate for governor, blasted the bill. She said, "Too many times, so-called conservatives get elected promising to fight against liberal policies, only to embrace them once in office."

"I'm not only offended, but I'm very upset about that," said Gardenhire, a Chattanooga lawmaker. "So, her day of reckoning will come when she comes to Hamilton County."

Harwell, a Nashville Republican, said at a governor's race forum in January that if paying out-of-state tuition is bad, it should also be bad for her two children who were born in America and had to pay that higher rate.

The tuition bill only applies to students who spent at least three years in Tennessee high schools or home schooling before graduating or finishing GED testing. It managed to pass just one House subcommittee this session before a Senate committee approved a motion not to hear the bill Wednesday because of the House's inaction.

A similar measure in 2015 passed the Senate, but died by a single vote on the House floor. The legislation died by one vote in a House committee last year. Voters have favored the change widely in polls.

In a contentious election year, the bill's fate was further complicated by federal inaction to extend a President Barack Obama-era program offering a reprieve from deportation to thousands of young immigrants who were brought into the country illegally as children.

President Donald Trump has proposed a pathway to citizenship for 1.8 million young immigrants who currently could qualify for deportation protection, but in exchange he wants new legal immigration restrictions and $25 billion for border security. The plan has divided Congress.

The defeat of the Tennessee bill dealt a blow to the affected students who have frequented the Capitol complex, lobbying lawmakers and snapping photos with Republican Gov. Bill Haslam, who has said he supports the proposal because the state needs a trained workforce.

They lined up outside legislative committee rooms Wednesday, holding signs that read, "Give us a chance, give us a vote. #LetUsLearn."

Lisa Sherman Nikolaus of the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition said lawmakers "prioritized careers over courage, fear over fairness and politics over principle."

Lizeth Luna, an 18-year-old high school junior currently shielded from deportation, said her dream is to attend the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and become a homicide investigator, but the price of out-of-state tuition would be tremendous.

"Having the help of only paying in-state tuition would be a huge help for me and my family," said Luna, whose family came from Mexico.

About 20 other states and Washington, D.C., have similar in-state tuition policies for these students. Tennessee's out-of-state rate can be three times what state residents pay.


https://www.usnews.com/news/best-sta...d-in-tennessee

Go take your SIGNS to "give you a chance" and your Flag and go plead YOUR sob story in YOUR country on YOUR President's doorstep.

You WANT America? You want a "chance"...go build it on your soil instead of flee like a coward and take from the USA.

Give American's the "chance" to finally put an END to illegal immigration, a "chance" to finally end the dumping of refugees, asylum liars and TPS on OUR backs!

GO VOTE IN YOUR COUNTRY, GO RUN FOR OFFICE IN YOUR COUNTRY, GO EFFECT CHANGE IN YOUR COUNTRY!

NOT COME HERE AND DEMAND WHAT YOU "WANT" HERE!

My.3rd..Generation.American.Granddaughter.does.not .get.any.special.perks.when.she.starts.college.nex t.year....why.should.they???