Julie A. Neilson, a college counselor at Garfield High School, in Los Angeles, is desperate for a way to help a student from a low-income family pay for her first year of college.
But rather than try the usual channels -- finding financial aid or a cheap community college -- the counselor is hoping to find a professor willing to provide the student with room and board in exchange for housekeeping and baby-sitting.
For 10 to 15 percent of the nearly 900 seniors -- nearly all of them Latino -- whom Ms. Neilson assists, even cheap tuition and federal financial aid aren’t options. The students, who have come to the United States with their parents, are not legal residents of the United States.
They can enroll at public colleges in California but must pay nonresident tuition rates, which many of them can’t afford. And they are ineligible for federal and state financial-aid programs.
Lawmakers in California and Texas, the states with the largest number of “undocumented” students enrolled in colleges, have introduced legislation to help these students. The bills would allow those in the process of attaining legal residency to qualify for in-state tuition rates at community colleges and some four-year institutions.
Proponents of the legislation argue that it’s only fair to allow students who have attended elementary and secondary schools in the United States to pursue a college degree here, too. But critics say the students have no legal right to reside in this country, much less to be subsidized by state taxpayers while taking college courses.
A 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Plyler v. Doe, prevents elementary and secondary schools from considering immigration status when a student is seeking to enroll. But the ruling does not apply to postsecondary institutions.
“These are individuals who all along in their primary- and secondary-school education have had the right to, and were required to, attend those schools,” says Joseph P. Berra, a lawyer for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. “Now they’re caught in a bind, because they don’t have access to higher education and can’t pursue their goals because of economic limitations.”
Mr. Berra, who works in the group’s San Antonio office, advised the legislators who drafted the bill.
Groups pushing for tighter immigration laws are fighting the bills. “Most of these kids are victims of their parents, and you always feel sad for children whose parents force them into a life of crime,” says Roy H. Beck, president of Americans for Better Immigration, in Washington. “But every single day those kids are in the country they are breaking the law.”
Under the proposed law in California, students would qualify for in-state tuition rates at community colleges and the California State University System, provided that they attended a California high school for at least three years, and that they enroll at a state institution within one year of graduation. Tuition for a state resident at Cal State at Long Beach cost $1,702 in 2000-1, compared with $9,082 for nonresidents. The students would also qualify for state financial-aid programs.
“These young people are not dissimilar from many young Californians who have the ability and the desire to pursue higher education and find themselves unable to because of financial consideration,” says State Rep. Marco A. Firebaugh, a Democrat, who introduced the bill.
In an address to a joint session of the California Legislature last month, Mexico’s president, Vicente Fox, urged lawmakers to pass the bill.
Similar legislation was approved last year and sent to Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat. He vetoed it, arguing that if illegal immigrants were offered in-state tuition, the federal Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 would prohibit the state from charging out-of-state tuition rates to any other students. The act prohibits colleges from providing any educational benefits to undocumented students that are not available to U.S. citizens as well.
In Texas, the legislation would require students to have graduated from a public or private high school in the state and to have lived in the state for at least one year before graduating. An analysis by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board estimated that the change could result in the enrollment of an additional 2,400 students in the public colleges, with nearly 70 percent of them attending community colleges.
Without such a law, says State Rep. Rick Noriega, a Democrat and the bill’s author, the students would be forced into menial jobs. “The effect of that is that the state will more than likely have to absorb all the social costs of these students and all the collateral effect of them being in lower wage earning jobs.”
Michael A. Olivas, a professor of law on the University of Houston’s main campus who specializes in immigration law, argues that the Texas bill might not violate federal law, because out-of-state students could receive in-state tuition if they moved to Texas before attending college. That’s just what the undocumented students have done, he points out.
“The real fear is that these students will overrun the schools, and that, of course, is untrue,” Mr. Olivas says. “These kids don’t come here just to go to college.”
Mr. Firebaugh, of California, notes that his bill is designed to benefit only longtime residents. “We’re not talking about kids who come across the border to go to college,” he says.
But opponents of the measures believe that cheaper tuition could indeed increase illegal immigration. “To offer more incentives for people to come here illegally, such as subsidizing higher education, only exacerbates the problem,” says Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the California office of the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
In California, an analysis of last year’s bill by an appropriations committee in the State Senate estimated that it would make an additional 750 to 1,500 students eligible for in-state tuition on Cal State campuses. The estimate did not include community colleges.
Charles B. Reed, chancellor of the Cal State system, expresses some sympathy for the students’ plight. “This is a country that tries to improve everybody’s standing,” he says. But, he adds, “The issue really is cost. No one knows what this might cost.”
If the legislation is signed into law, it could help students like Miguel, a senior at Garfield High School who came to the United States from Mexico with his family in 1995.
Miguel, who is not a legal citizen and asked that his identity not be revealed, has applied to nearly 20 colleges. To qualify for financial aid and in-state tuition, he has considered marrying a legal resident, and even resorting to illegal tactics, like using a relative’s Social Security number.
Although he could return to Mexico to attend college, he wants to remain near his family. “This is my home now,” he says.
In the meantime, Ms. Neilson, Garfield’s college counselor, will continue to look for alternative sources of support to help students like Miguel attend college. “It’s a lesson in frustration,” she says.
http://chronicle.com Section: Government & Politics Page: A36