In-State Tuition for Illegal Residents???

This article from Sunday’s New York Times jumps into the debate on in-state tuition for long-term undocumented immigrants. The article definitely calls attention to some of the arguments for giving such students the benefits of that tuition, including but not limited to the fact that current legislation (in the 40 states that do not currently offer that tuition rate) can be considered denying access to higher education to these students, many of whom have been in the United States nearly their entire lives. However, the article also includes the counterpoint that some stakeholders believe taxpayers should not subsidize the college education of illegal immigrants.

The article does not point out what this article from the February 27th Arizona Republic does--that undocumented students who graduate from college in the US are not eligible to work here and therefore 1) must either return to home countries they barely know to get meaningful work or toil underground in the same labor and service-sector jobs as their illegal immigrant parents; and 2) the state is unable to recoup the investment it makes in these students.

Aside from opinions about whether the policy of in-state tuition for illegal immigrants is right or wrong (or just sound or unsound), I think its interesting that the NYT article makes such a major omission. Its a major point that would likely influence the thinking of many individuals. The omission seems to speak either to the perils of basing policy opinions on mass media, or to the fact that policies can be designed to exist in a bubble outside of reality…

Labels: immigration, tuition