Posted on 09/05/2001 2:50:41 PM PDT by Mercuria
The California Assembly is considering legislation that would extend in-state tuition rates to illegal immigrants who have graduated from California high schools.
Assemblymen Marco Firebaugh (D-Los Angeles) and Abel Maldonado (R-Santa Maria) said their legislation would create a level playing field for all high school graduates in the state, regardless of their immigration status.
The California Coalition for Immigration Reform (CCIR), however, insists billions of dollars are already spent to educate illegal immigrants and that the Firebaugh-Maldonado bill would reward lawbreakers.
"There [are] a great number of students in California that have worked hard academically and have been able to achieve," said Firebaugh's Press Secretary Ricardo Lara. "What we're seeing and hearing is that when the kids graduate from high school, and get accepted to various public colleges and universities throughout the state, [they] are forced to pay three times the tuition rate [compared with in-state students]."
Lara claims that many of the students being granted in-state tuition have come into the country illegally because of their parents rather than their own individual actions.
"The stories that we have been hearing are that a lot of these kids have been here since they were the age of one. Obviously the parents brought them over, so they had no idea that they were undocumented and they had no idea that they were 'illegal'," he said. "We can't blame the kids for what their parents did.
"Since the high schoolers cannot initiate the process of legalization themselves, unless obviously they are over the age of 18," Lara said. "What our thinking is, is that these kids are here for most of their lives, they are not going to go anywhere, so the best we can do is to at least help them get an education."
Lara argues that illegal immigrant students are a lost resource, who would be much better used than high tech workers who are imported from abroad.
"They are not getting any benefits, [and] they still are going to have to pay tuition," he said. "We're putting these students at a higher standard," because these students have to have lived in California for three years and graduated from a California high school, compared to the one-year requirement for out of state residents who move to California.
Mexican-American advocates are pleased with the Firebaugh-Maldonado bill that currently sits in the Appropriations Committee of the California Senate.
"We think it is a good thing that the state is not dealing with immigration law, but dealing with education policy for its state and its students," said Liz Guillen, legislative counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF). "They (illegal immigrants) have been in this state for years.
"The way the bill is written, out-of-state students can get this if they cross the border and attend high school here, so this doesn't [bill] distinguish on the basis of immigration status," she said.
Guillen is confident of the bill's passage because its sponsors have been working with Democratic Gov. Gray Davis's office to craft a bill to the governor's liking.
Guillen shares Lara's belief that granting in-state tuition to illegal immigrants will help make them productive members of society, and limit their need for state social services such as welfare.
"We think that the benefits that the state will enjoy as a result of these students [receiving an] education will be beyond what people are concerned about at the moment," Guillen said.
Davis is waiting to see the final form of the bill before deciding whether to support it, according to his spokesman, Roger Salazar.
However, the bill has stiff opposition from the California Coalition for Immigration Reform (CCIR), which complains that California residents are already required to pay billions of dollars to pay for the education of illegal immigrants.
"The money that we already pay to educate them from K-12 is already in the multi-billions," said CCIR Chairwoman Barbara Coe. "Now we are supposed to stand quietly by and then double or triple it to put them through college. I don't think so.
"You have students from other states who are forced to pay out-of-state tuition while you lawbreakers are given carte blanche, so we oppose it very, very strongly, and we're fighting it as best as we can," she said.
Coe indicates that CCIR would like to legally challenge the bill if Davis signs it into law, but adds that the group does not have enough money to pursue such a lawsuit.
Not uncomfy enough to fire them, though?
Well, that at least makes sense.
Lenin said that the last capitalist would sell the communists the rope that would be used to hang himself with.
They've been coming out with some of these stories, to show how sad it is that the illegals don't have access to scholarship money, after all, financially most would qualify over all Americans. They fail to mention that if they really wanted they could WORK their way through college just like so many American students do.
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