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Scholarship offers may still be reaching illegal immigrants
By Emelie Rutherford/ Daily News Staff
Saturday, September 16, 2006

A year after Gov. Mitt Romney's administration offered scholarships to illegal immigrants' kids, who could not accept the scholarships, it may unwittingly have done the same thing this year.

Romney yesterday announced more than 16,000 high school seniors graduating next year have been sent letters offering them John and Abigail Adams Scholarships, which grant students with high MCAS scores four years of free tuition at state colleges. But education officials say there's no way to tell if any of those students receiving scholarship letters now are illegal immigrants.

Illegal immigrants cannot receive government financial aid, under federal law, so an offer of an Adams Scholarship to them is little more than a piece of paper.

Four illegal immigrant students at Framingham High School, and dozens more around the state, received letters from the Romney administration that they were being offered an Adams Scholarship last year.

Democrats were quick to criticize the Romney administration for the gaffe last year, calling it ironic and saying it took an unnecessary emotional toll on the students. Romney and Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey have been outspoken opponents of legislation to make children of illegal immigrants eligible for in-state tuition rates at state colleges.

This year, the state Department of Education has taken steps to ensure only legal Massachusetts residents are offered the Adams Scholarships, said department spokeswoman Heidi Perlman.

"What we tried to do this year is just be extremely clear in the guidelines...that schools and districts are responsible for ensuring that only students who are legal Massachusetts residents" are offered the scholarships, Perlman said.

It's the responsibility of local school officials, she said, to go through the lists of scholarship recipients before the letters are distributed to ensure all are legal residents.

Framingham schools Superintendent Chris Martes said under a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision school officials cannot track or check into students' immigration status. Under the ruling, in Plyler vs. Doe, public schools are required to educate illegal immigrant children.

Martes said there's no way for local officials to check if the students the Romney administration taps for the Adams Scholarships are here legally or not.

"We do not have that information," Martes said. "We don't know (students' immigration status) because we don't ask, we can't."

Romney spokesman Felix Browne pointed out that only legal immigrants can actually receive the Adams Scholarships, so if an offer is made to an illegal immigrant nothing will come of it.

The Adams Scholarships, which are being offered for the third year, are available to students with an "advanced" score in the English or Math part of the MCAS and an "advanced" or "proficient" score in another part of the test. The students must also be in the top 25 percent of students in their school districts for MCAS scores.

Hundreds of the 16,169 high school students who are being offered the Adams Scholarships are in MetroWest, including 145 at Framingham High School, 80 at Natick High School, 69 at Marlborough High School and 101 at Franklin High School.

(Emelie Rutherford can be reached at 617-722-2495 or erutherford@cnc.com.)