[Educationforall] Tuesday's Education: Debate over tuition for illegal immigrants continues

[Eric Henson]

Debate over tuition for illegal immigrants continues

BY PAT FLYNN <http://www.signonsandiego.com/staff/pat-flynn/>

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2010 AT 11:54 A.M.

Local and statewide education officials said they have received scant
reaction to Monday’s state Supreme Court ruling affirming that illegal
immigrants <http://topics.signonsandiego.com/topics/Illegal_immigration> are
entitled to in-state tuition rates
atCalifornia<http://topics.signonsandiego.com/topics/California>’s
public colleges and universities.

“We only had one, one e-mail,” Richard Dittbenner, a spokesman for the San
Diego Community College District, said Tuesday. “It was a little hard to
follow, but it was clearly a person who opposed state law AB 540, even
though it was passed by a majority of the Legislature, signed by the
governor, defended by the attorney general and upheld by a unanimous court.”

Dissatisfaction with the high court’s ruling was apparent, however, in
comments posted on SignOnSan Diego and in e-mails to The San Diego
Union-Tribune<http://topics.signonsandiego.com/topics/The_San_Diego_Union-Tribune>
.

“It is remarkable that (after) … these trials and lengthy appeals, the
conclusion is we give illegal aliens a better deal than legal residents of
other state …,” wrote Gary Gunning, a financial adviser in the University
Towne Centre area. “Could we be any more foolish with our limited resources?

In a phone conversation, Gunning said he was not aware of any organized
opposition to the court’s ruling.

“But I wouldn’t be surprised if something like this will resonate with
citizens and spark something,” he said.

The Supreme Court’s ruling upheld a 2001 state law that states that anyone
who attends three years of high school in California and graduates here is
entitled to in-state tuition, which is a fraction of what out-of-state
students are charged. Proponents of the law stress that it applies to
everyone, including, for example, citizens who go to high school here, move
to another state and then return.

A group of out-of-state students and parents sued in 2005, contending the
state law unconstitutionally circumvented a federal law meant to prohibit
such benefits for illegal immigrants. The law permitting illegal immigrants
to pay in-state tuition remained in effect throughout the litigation.

“It’s the status quo,” said Terri Carbaugh, an official in the California
Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office in Sacramento. “We haven’t heard or
seen any complaints.”

Another reason reaction is muted, officials agreed, is that the law affects
relatively few students.

About 2000 University of California students qualified for an AB 540
exemption in 2008-09, the university said. Of those, only about 400 were
illegal immigrants.

At the California State University’s 23 campuses, about 3,600 students
received such a waiver, a spokesman said, but the system has no estimate of
how many of those are illegal immigrants.

Across the state’s community colleges, about 36,200 students qualified for
an exemption, Carbaugh said. She did not have an estimate for how many are
illegal immigrants.

pat.flynn at uniontrib.com • (619) 293-2083
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