In-state tuition bill re-filed as federal DACA decision is debated

In-state tuition bill re-filed as federal DACA decision is debated


February 2, 2018

Jason Gonzales


Gubernatorial candidates speak on DACA and higher education at the gubernatorial forum Michael Schwab



The issue of in-state tuition for young immigrants who entered the United States illegally at a young age is again before the Tennessee General Assembly.



The bill, filed Thursday, presents a departure from last year's proposal that would have let individual college institutions decide on in-state tuition for those young immigrants.



Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, and Rep. Mark White, R-Memphis, are again sponsoring the bill, which was within one vote of passage several years ago.
Gov. Bill Haslam has said he supports such a bill.



More: Gubernatorial candidates speak on DACA and higher education
More: Tennessee lawmakers say Congress' DACA actions will guide debate on in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants
More: Faith leaders call upon Congress to protect DACA youth


House Bill 2429 is geared to students known as Dreamers who have been granted temporary legal status through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.



Those students would be exempt from paying higher out-of-state tuition rates if they agree to "file an application to legalize such student's immigration status as soon as the student is eligible."



To be eligible, students must attend school in Tennessee for three years immediately prior to graduation from high school, obtain a diploma or certificate and enroll at a state institution of higher education.



Another in-state bill was also filed Thursday that would bar students with temporary legal status from in-state tuition. The legislation was filed by Rep. Jerome Moon, R-Maryville, and Sen. Joey Hensely, R-Hohenwald. It's unclear what House Bill 2582 would change.


DACA, as it is known, is a program created by then-President Barack Obama in 2012 that provides protections for young immigrants. It will end in 2018 under President Donald Trump. Trump has asked Congress to provide a long-term fix.


Details on how to replace DACA are being debated by Congress, and state legislators, including White, have said they are watching the process closely.


Last year, a bill that Gardenhire and White sponsored would have given the authority to state colleges to grant in-state tuition to those living in the country illegally. Tennessee's attorney general said in an opinion that the legislature can't grant individual colleges that authority.
The ability to grant in-state tuition to those students "requires an affirmative choice by the state legislature to provide benefits to individuals who cannot prove their lawful presence in the United States,” the opinion says. "A choice by one or more state institutions of higher education to provide such benefits would not satisfy the requirements."




https://www.tennessean.com/story/new...ted/300810002/

Tennessee bill that would let immigrant students pay in-state tuition re-filed

February 1, 2018

Kaylin Jorge

A bill that would let immigrant students who are in the country without documentation pay in-state college tuition has been re-filed in the Tennessee Legislature after failing last year.


Senator Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) and Representative White (R-Memphis) re-introduced the "Tuition Opportunity" bill on Thursday.
Under current law, immigrant students who are in the country without documentation are forced to pay out-of-state tuition because they are not considered legal residents. This means they would have to sometimes pay two or three times the amount of tuition as other students who graduated from Tennessee high schools.


The Tennessee Immigrant and Refuge Rights Coalition said there are about 25,000 undocumented youth who have lived in the state for most of their lives, whose parents have contributed to paying "more than $107.4 million in state and property taxes in 2014."


Attorney General Herbert Slatery previously issued an opinion that the state can't leave immigration tuition breaks up to colleges.

The campaign for immigrants to pay the same tuition as their peers started five years ago.


http://fox17.com/news/local/tennesse...ition-re-filed

Tennessee gubernatorial candidates: Student testing, teacher evaluations must improve

January 23, 2018

Dave Boucher and Jason Gonzales


Five of Tennessee's leading gubernatorial candidates on Tuesday evening touted the need for student tests that work, and teacher evaluations that are reliable.


The cordial, hour-long forum at Belmont University featured few disagreements and plenty of promises from the three Republicans and two Democrats on stage.


The candidates fell along party lines on two issues: offering in-state college tuition rates for undocumented immigrants and expanding publicly funded pre-kindergarten programming.


The Republican candidates -- former state Economic and Community Development Commissioner Randy Boyd, Tennessee House Speaker Beth Harwell and Williamson County business leader Bill Lee -- largely opposed in-state tuition for non-citizens. The Democratic candidates, former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean and House Minority Leader Craig Fitzhugh, support the idea.


Republican Beth Harwell, Democrat Craig Fitzhugh, Democrat Karl Dean, Republican Bill Lee, and Republican Randy Boyd during the gubernatorial forum on education at Belmont University in Nashville on Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2018.



They also favor expanding pre-k programs, while the Republican candidates argued there must be more attention to quality of pre-k programming than expansion.



Ongoing problems plague TN Ready, the standardized evaluations recently implemented in schools across the state. In turn, teacher evaluations based on student testing performance are fraught with mistrust given TN Ready's unreliability.


However, no candidate thought it was time to move away from performance-based teacher evaluations or some form of standarized testing.



"When the scoreboard breaks, you don’t just stop keeping score. You fix the scoreboard," said Boyd, a Republican.


Harwell, R-Nashville, noted as a former college professor she didn't get into the profession to administer tests. At the same time, tax payers deserve to know their education system works, she said.
"Teachers do not mind accountability, what they want is credibility in that testing system," Harwell said.


Noting his business experience, Lee said it's important to create an assessment that includes teacher input and support.


"When we bring testing and assessments and mandates to them, we need to be certain that what we’re asking of them is making the classroom and education system better," Lee said.


Democrats routinely criticize teacher evaluations that rely on student test scores, noting the problems with standardized tests and few ramifications for students if they perform poorly. Dean and Fitzhugh said teachers do not mind accountability.


"Evaluations shouldn’t be punitive. The idea is to help people move forward," Dean said.


Fitzhugh continually stressed the need to restore respect and increase salaries for teachers.


"Teachers have taken it on the chin, and we need to not let that happen," He said.


Earlier Tuesday, Gov. Bill Haslam said he looked forward to the forum.
"The debate tonight, I am really pleased it's starting off on education, because I think whoever is governor, education should continue to be the focus," Haslam told reporters Tuesday morning.


Former state Sen. Mae Beavers was slated to attend the event but could not due to the sudden death of her mother.


"SCORE (an organization sponsoring the debate) is focused on educational issues and you will not find a candidate more passionate about the education of all our children," Beavers said in the statement.
She highlighted several policy focuses, including, "children need to be able to read by 3rd grade before going onto higher levels."


U.S. Rep. Diane Black, considered by some the frontrunner in the GOP primary, did not attend Tuesday, citing a scheduling conflict.
SCORE, an education advocacy organization, estimated attendance at more than 1,200 people.





http://www.wbir.com/article/news/loc...e/51-511026036