by Joey Labuz
Thursday, March 12, 2009 00:00

We might not realize it, but those of us paying in-state tuition (or something near that) have a pretty sweet deal. Our university education is actually worth a lot more than we pay. In fact, over the whole University of Wisconsin System, the budget is north of $25,000 per student per year. Of that, residents pay only about $7,500 and non-residents around $22,000 in yearly tuition at UW-Madison campus.

Some sort of benevolent force — or really talented accountant — had to make this bargain possible. In fact, it turns out that it’s neither Billy Mays nor Chef Tony who are crazy enough to extend to us such a great offer — it’s the people of Wisconsin.

The logic goes that in order to offset the large cost of a university education, the citizens of Wisconsin (along with the federal government and private donors) pool their money to make college a little more affordable for their citizens. Residents of Wisconsin pay into the system since they (or at least their parents) pay taxes here. In return, those residents get a heavily discounted tuition rate. Should people from outside that revenue base want to attend a Wisconsin university, they are free to do so but are not entitled to an equally discounted rate. Since they (or their parents) have not contributed to the state’s tax base, they are not entitled to reap its benefits.

There is one problem. There are many who live, work and go to school in Wisconsin who are not technically residents. In fact, they are not technically even citizens of the United States. And if you’re not a citizen then you can’t be a resident — right?

Gov. Jim Doyle doesn’t think that sounds fair, so he has included a measure to grant “tuition remission for a person who is a citizen of another countryâ€