Oregon Ping
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Posted on 04/07/2005 4:56:58 PM PDT by crazyhorse691
SALEM -- A bill giving Oregon students who are not U.S. citizens the right to attend Oregon state universities at in-state tuition rates cleared the Senate Education and Workforce Committee on Wednesday.
Senate Bill 769 now goes to the Joint Ways and Means Committee for an assessment of its effect on the state's higher education budget.
The vote was 3-1, with Sen. Jeff Kruse, R-Roseburg, voting no. Sen. Charles Starr, R-Hillsboro, was a reluctant yes, noting that his vote probably would anger some of his constituents who are upset that noncitizens would get access to in-state tuition.
Currently, noncitizens must pay out-of-state rates at Oregon's public universities, but many cannot afford to. The difference between resident and nonresident tuition is about $12,000 a year.
"I have supported this bill because these students have been in our system all along," Starr said. "They are not going home."
The bill would grant in-state tuition to a non-U.S. citizen if the student attended an Oregon high school for three consecutive years, earned an Oregon high school diploma and plans to become a citizen or a resident legal alien.
The bill was backed by the Oregon University System and the Oregon Student Association, which represents students at public universities. It was opposed by Oregonians for Immigration Reform, which argued at a public hearing last month that taxpayers shouldn't subsidize college for illegal immigrants. The group also argued that the bill could encourage more illegal immigration to Oregon.
Eight states have granted in-state tuition rates to noncitizen students, including California and Washington, according to a study by the Oregon University System. The study concluded there is no evidence that granting resident tuition rates to students who are not citizens had caused tuition to rise in those eight states.
Steve Bender. a legislative fiscal analyst, told the committee the university system could lose about $920,000 per biennium if the bill becomes law. That's based on 20 students currently in the university system who could switch to in-state tuition, and 80 more who would go to college if they could pay the lower in-state rate.
Bender said those estimates were based on what has happened in other states when similar legislation passed.
A similar bill passed the Senate in 2003 but died in the Republican-controlled House.
Steven Carter: 503-221-8521; stevencarter@news.oregonian.com
This is just an free pass to legalization.
One of the elements to rolling amnesty that is ALREADY the LAW in the USA is to allow for the person to show they are "of value" and have a high education background.
So they will kick out natural borns and legal residents in order to facilitate the illegals applications for rolling amnesty.
If this applied to those with green cards who came to America FOR an education, I wouldn't have such a problem. But in my state, California, illegals pay the same as us, and to boot they can get state assistance to pay. Tuition has gone up for citizens.
Illegal immigration is no longer illegal. Our K-12 schools are a WRECK. Thanks, American politicians.
It's time for a kid from another state to travel to Oregan and claim the right to in state tuition. How can a valuable commodity such as an education be sold to illegal immigrants at a price lower than the price set for a citizen of the United States? We need a test case. Article four may cover this.
Oregon Ping
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If thewy are illegals ~ send them home!
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