Thread: UT: Pulling plug on in-state tuition will cost $1.5M

Pulling plug on in-state tuition will cost $1.5M
State would lose out if undocumented students drop out.

By Sheena McFarland

The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 02/27/2010 10:58:03 PM MST

A bill that would repeal in-state tuition for children of undocumented immigrants may be dead before it ever gets a public debate this year.

HB428 has been tagged with a $1.5 million cost estimate -- the amount of tuition that would be lost if the 400 identified undocumented students were to drop out because they couldn't afford to pay the higher out-of-state or international tuition.

"It would take unanimous support from leadership to get a bill like that through," said Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan, who is Senate chairman of the Legislature's main budget committee. "With all the other cuts and reductions we're doing, it would have to have a very high priority."

But HB428 is still awaiting a hearing in the Legislature, and even its sponsor realizes it would take a major push to get it through the House and Senate before the session ends March 11.

"It could make it all the way through, but it may not be funded and go nowhere," said the sponsor, Rep. Richard Greenwood, R-Roy. "We have a little under two weeks. It's going to have to grow some pretty long legs."

His bill is the sixth attempt to repeal the 2002 law, and this is the first year the specter of enrollment caps at schools such as Utah Valley University and Salt Lake Community College -- which also have the highest numbers of undocumented students -- has bolstered lawmakers' arguments to repeal the law.

But the prospect of enrollment caps is nothing but "rumor and speculation" to activists such as Matt Bradley, a University of Utah instructor and member of the Magpie Collective, a group formed in opposition to the conservative Eagle Forum.

"Greenwood says enrollment caps are going to happen, but from my point of view, and from schools I've talked to, there aren't any actual plans for enrollment caps," Bradley said. "If in-state tuition is revoked, the majority of those students will not be able to attend school. They simply can't afford it."

The fiscal note is different each time the bill is presented because "the tone of the bill also affects the tone of the fiscal notes," according to Spencer Pratt, the legislative fiscal analyst who has calculated the bill's costs for the past few years.

The majority of students would drop out of school if they had to pay out-of-state tuition, and there's no guarantee an additional 400 students would take their places, he said.

"We're looking at system-wide soft caps," he said. "You can only offer so many sections, and when they fill up, you're out of luck."

The $1.5 million loss to institutions of higher education is not something that Greenwood and bill advocates say will hinder its ability to pass.

Ron Mortensen, co-founder of the Utah Coalition on Illegal Immigration, calls the fiscal note "ludicrous."

"I look at it as a politically motivated action deliberately designed to kill the bill," he said. "I can't see why else it would be there."

But he is trying to look at it as positively as he can, saying that if schools will lose $1.5 million, the state is actually saving about $3 million, because it subsidizes two-thirds of Utahns' higher-education costs.

"If you've got a waiting list or are threatening enrollment caps," he said, "have the unemployed Americans who are coming back to school fill in for those 400 positions."

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_14486435

Under federal law, if the state gives illegals in-state tuition then they must give it to everyone. Just imagine how much that will cost if citizens find out.

$1.5M is a "drop in the bucket"... Utahans will go that route rather than pay "BILLIONS FOR ILLEGALS TO ATTEND THE COLLEGES"....

Legislature tries to pull in-state tuition for undocumented
February 28, 10:30 AMSalt Lake City Political Buzz ExaminerAlison Peek

In 2002, it became legal for the children of undocumented immigrants to attend Utah's colleges and universities as residents if they graduated from a Utah high school. This allowed for in-state tuition, making it possible for around 400 students to further their education and improve their lives.

This year, HB428, sponsored by Representative Richard Greenwood-R, Roy, has been introduced to repeal that law. The students would not longer qualify for in-state tuition and would have to pay much higher non-resident fees or drop out of school.

With less than two weeks left in the legislative session, the bill has yet to go to committee for review. Mr. Greenwood is pressing for hearings because he is concerned about rumored enrollment caps for Utah Valley University and Salt Lake Community College, two schools with the most undocumented students. Neither school has announced plans for enrollment caps.

If the bill passed, and it has been attempted six times, not only would many undocumented students be forced to leave school, Utah's colleges and universities would lose over $1.5 million in tuition payments.

Proponents of the bill say the discussion of tuition dollars is not a factor, and is designed to defeat the bill. They argue two thirds of higher learning costs are already subsidized by the state, and if enrollment was capped, those 400 openings could be filled by unemployed Americans.

www.examiner.com