Protect AB540 Students


| 2008-09-21 | La Opinión

California must prepare its young people with the knowledge and skills to face the employment challenges of the future. The state’s public higher education system, with all of its defects, is one of the best in the country; that’s why it is to be expected that state residents benefit from a tuition that is less than that paid by students who come from elsewhere to study here in our state.

The definition of residency should make common sense and not rest on technicalities. For example, the very fact of attending a high school for several years and graduating means one has been a resident in the state; add to this that in these households taxes are being paid that end up supporting the state’s higher education system among other destinations.

This is why AB540 was a reasonable piece of legislation. It allowed undocumented students whograduated after at least three years in high school in the state and who promised to become legal residents, the ability to attend a state university and pay in-state tuition.

Now the decision of a State Appeals Court puts the law in jeopardy. It must be urgently appealed to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, students must continue with their studies because, at this point, nothing has changed.

The legal dispute is over the interpretation of a federal law. It is yet one more example of the need for a comprehensive immigration reform.

The hostility toward the AB540 students must be viewed as part of the overall hostility toward the undocumented, because the fact is, these students are not displacing other students. For the good of California, we must allow these students to continue attending the university under the present conditions.
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