Immigration debate: Tuition breaks go largely unclaimed
Immigration debate: Tuition breaks go largely unclaimed
http://images.politico.com/global/20...ege_ap_605.jpgFifteen states have legislation allowing undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition | AP Photo
By CAITLIN EMMA | 7/7/13 11:10 PM EDT
Fifteen states have passed laws allowing undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition at public colleges — a huge incentive for lower-income kids looking for a financial break.
But while opponents have screamed about giving taxpayer subsidies to illegal immigrants, the actual programs themselves have fallen well short — in some states only a couple dozen students have signed up, and at most a couple hundred have taken advantage of the laws. At the University of Connecticut — a school of nearly 18,000 — only 33 undocumented students use the law.
The trivial numbers for these programs counter critics’ arguments that tons of immigrant students are cheating legal residents out of seats and states out of revenue.
“Some states wonder whether there will be an effect on the other students,” said Tanya Broder, a senior attorney with the National Immigration Law Center. “And the state isn’t really cheated out of revenue because the number of students affected is small. In each state, it’s just a few dozen or a few hundred undocumented immigrant students.”
Why are the numbers so small? Broder said socioeconomic and financial barriers still make it hard for undocumented students to attend college. Some of the states that allow undocumented students to pay in-state tuition still bar the same students from qualifying for financial aid.
The struggle to make in-state tuition programs work also shows the larger complexity of immigration reform in general, as Washington wrestles with a massive overhaul: Sometimes programs with the best intentions just don’t make a difference.
The state-by-state movement on in-state tuition for undocumented students has been under way for more than a decade. This year, Colorado, Oregon, Minnesota and the University of Hawaii’s board of regents passed tuition-equity laws. The board of regents went ahead and passed its own policy after a tuition equity bill stalled in the state Senate.
Fifteen states have legislation that allow undocumented immigrant students to pay in-state tuition: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Washington. Texas was the first state to enact tuition-equity measures in 2001.
And states that might revisit tuition-equity bills in their upcoming legislative sessions include New Jersey, Arkansas, Indiana, New Hampshire, Michigan and Virginia. Indiana passed a measure this year that grandfathers some undocumented students into paying in-state tuition after a previous set of laws removed the benefit, but a full tuition-equity bill did not pass.
The small number of undocumented students paying in-state tuition isn’t a figure that most schools track closely. Janet Gilmore, director of strategic communications for the Office of Public Affairs at the University of California at Berkeley, said the school doesn’t track the number of undocumented students in any comprehensive way.
The California DREAM Act, passed in 2011, goes a step further and allows undocumented students to apply for student financial aid benefits.
Gilmore said the number of students receiving California DREAM Act grants or scholarships at UC Berkeley is about 250 for 2012-13. In order to qualify for a grant or scholarship, those students must also qualify for an AB540 waiver of nonresident tuition — making the number of undocumented UC Berkeley students receiving in-state tuition at least 250 out of a total undergraduate population of 25,700.
Gary Susswein, director of media relations at the University of Texas at Austin, said the university doesn’t track or have any formal way to identify undocumented students.
Connecticut passed its tuition-equity law in May 2011. The University of Connecticut saw 33 students pay in-state tuition after passage of the law starting the fall semester of 2011 through 2012. At Central Connecticut State University, about a dozen undocumented students out of 11,360 pay in-state tuition. At Western Connecticut State University, three out of about 5,500 pay in-state tuition.
“It’s not surprising that the numbers are relatively small, but they’re growing,” Broder said. “These kinds of policies make it easier for students to have a better chance.”
Not allowing these students an equal shot at affording college would represent a loss to the state, said California state Sen. Ricardo Lara, who has worked on immigration issues in the Legislature for the past decade.
“We’re already investing in these children, and if we drop them out of the system, that’s a lost investment on our part,” he said. “Because guess what? They’re not going back to a country that they don’t know.”
Critics call the bills “loopholes” or demand to know how they’re lawful. Some say the in-state tuition benefits encourage illegal immigration.
“Accommodations to illegal aliens such as driver’s licenses, in-state tuition, etc., legitimize illegal immigration and encourage more of it,” wrote Jim Ludwick, founder of Oregonians for Immigration Reform, in a January op-ed for the Portland Tribune. “State legislators have the means to discourage illegal immigration and should act to do that.”
Each state law fully complies with a provision of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, which prohibits states from providing any higher education benefit to undocumented immigrant students based on residence that also isn’t made available to U.S. citizens.
Students who want to take advantage of the legislation must fulfill a number of requirements, such as attending school in the state for a specific number of years, graduating from high school in the state and signing an affidavit stating that they have applied for legal residency or will do so when eligible.
As the bills gain ground in more states, they’re also gaining more bipartisan support. Republicans are increasingly voting for the bills. The outcome of the 2012 presidential election, momentum for immigration reform and a sense of the country’s future all increase popularity of tuition-equity bills, advocates say.
“Politically, I think it’s a very smart thing to do,” Lara said. “The importance that the Latino community has played nationally in our election has caught the eye of lawmakers. Now we’re seeing this trickle down to the rest of the country.”
Immigration reform advocates say there’s more work to do — a federal bill that provides a secure pathway to achieving permanent legal status remains the ultimate goal. But even if the current immigration bill before Congress becomes law, states will still have to decide if they want to grant undocumented students in-state tuition benefits or access to financial aid. DREAM Act provisions included in the bill doesn’t require states to grant either.
And even existing tuition-equity bills contain some coverage gaps. Lara, for example, is currently pushing a bill that would allow undocumented high school students who are concurrently enrolled in some college courses to pay in-state tuition.
“These are kids who are overachievers,” he said. “They’re playing by the rules and doing everything they were told to do. By no fault of their own, they’re in this conundrum.”
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