Replies

"With what little respect is due to the Huckster, isn't punishing a kid who moved in to Arkansas from, say, Wisconsin by charging them out of state tuition doing the same thing? After all, how was it their fault that their parents lived in Wisconsin?"

I don't think Huckabee was advocating giving illegals who recently moved to Arkansas instate tuition. They had to meet the residency requirements. So assuming the requirements was 4 years. Then an illegal who moved to Arkansas 4 years before going to college would be eligible for in-state tuition, the same as a citizen who moved from Wisconsin 4 years before going to college.

If they hadn't lived in Arkansas for at least 4 years then neither the illegal nor the Wisconsin are eligible. If they don't meet the residency requirements than neither gets in-state tuition. That seems fair to me.

Idiotic, because the illegal is elevated over the kid from Wisconsin by virtue of his/her parents illegal residence in Arkansas for the four years prior. The kid from Wisconsin can make the exact same argument that it wasn't his/her decision to live in Wisconsin just as the illegal can argue that it wasn't his/her decision to be brought illegally into Arkansas.

You are therefore making a perk available to an illegal which isn't equally available to a citizen of another state for the same reason.

How many years of illegal residence in Arkansas the illegal alien enjoyed prior to college enrollment is not AND SHOULD NOT BE relevant.

If you cannot punish the kids for the (il)legal status of their parents, then you ought not to be able to reward them either.

The only way this could work fairly under a 14th amendment challenge is to offer the same rate to legal residents who move in as is offered to illegal residents already there.