Thread: Committee favors repeal of immigrant tuition law

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2006/mar/0 ... /?breaking

J-W Staff

Wednesday, March 1, 2006

TOPEKA — A law allowing some undocumented immigrants to pay resident tuition would be repealed under a bill recommended today by a House committee.

The 12-8 vote for a bill to repeal the 2004 law represented a dramatic turnaround from last week when the committee defeated the measure on an 11-11 tie vote.

But House Speaker Doug Mays, R-Topeka, an opponent of the tuition break, asked the House Federal and State Affairs Committee to have another vote.

This time, the repeal was endorsed and sent to the full House for consideration.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius supported the law when it was passed two years ago. She declined to say whether she would veto a measure to repeal it.

But she said during the recent National Governor’s Assn. meeting with President Bush, Bush indicated support for helping the children of immigrants attend higher education.

“He said and I agree with him that punishing children by making education more difficult for talented children of immigrants is probably a lose-lose situation,” Sebelius said.

Current law lets some undocumented immigrants qualify for in-state tuition if they attended a Kansas high school at least three years and graduated or earned a General Educational Development certificate in Kansas.

Last fall, 221 students enrolled under the law, most of them at community colleges, according to the Kansas Board of Regents.

A full-time undergraduate from Kansas pays $2,412 per semester at Kansas University, compared with $6,638 for out-of-state residents.

OK! Now, that is progress. Now we need the link to the Kansas Legislature!

http://www.kslegislature.org/legsrv-leg ... l/index.do