The Washington Post today is taking Mike Huckabee to task for the way he has been framing his record on supporting educational benefits for some illegal immigrants.

When he was governor of Arkansas, Mr. Huckabee supported a bill that would have made some illegal immigrants who grew up attending schools in the state eligible for a merit-based aid program, known as the Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship. (The legislation passed the state’s House of Representatives but died in the Senate.)

The issue led to some testy exchanges at a recent Republican debate.

The Post notes that a press release the Huckabee campaign issued on Saturday tries to distance the former governor from any support for providing in-state tuition (in addition to merit-scholarship eligibility) to some illegal immigrants.

After citing Mr. Huckabee’s remarks during one of his State of the State speeches and otherwise parsing his background on the issue, the Post concludes that “the distinction that Huckabee is attempting to draw is an artificial one.”

“It is true that Huckabee was particularly interested in the scholarship part of the bill” in Arkansas, the item said. “But it is untrue to claim that he ‘did not support in-state tuition’ for illegal immigrants.”

Under the newspaper’s “Pinocchio” rating system for fact checking presidential candidates, Mr. Huckabee earned three Pinocchios out of four.

The Post describes that category as meaning “significant factual error and/or obvious contradictions.”