Carol C.
I believe six states currently offer in-state tuition rates to undocumented immigrants. Texas, California, Georgia, Utah, New York and just recently Kansas (See Blue Clicky Thing below). 4 or 5 other states are currently debating the merits of such programs in their legislatures, my state being one of those.

Those Neanderthals who don't like "foreigners" would do well to remember that one of the best ways to get rid of them is to assimilate them, and one of the best ways to help them assimilate is through education. If tuition subsidies pass here, I'm sure it will increase my yearly state taxes, maybe as much as the price of a set or 2 of new guitar strings. I think I can live with that.

Our county has gone from totally white 25 years ago, to increasingly Hispanic, Black and Asian in 2005 (it's always been multicultural- many of the Prostestant New England stock who settled this area left when their culture was overrun by the Irish and Germans who followed later- too much drinking, fighting, rowdyness and worst of all Catholicism came along with the newcomers). Along with our recent increase in immigration (legal and otherwise) has come an increase in crime. I don't know if there is a cause/effect relationship there; certainly that's a widely held perception in my community, but I'm willing to bet that the number of active street gang members who are college graduates is pretty damn low, so if nothing else, it's a prudent investment in all our futures.

My family spent two entire generations digging it's way out of immigrant poverty. If in-state tuition can help ameliorate that for someone else, it's a reasonable, small sacrifice for the descendants of previous immigrants to make.








Atlanta Journal Article from 2003