In-state Tuition for Illegal Students?

Nancy Gorman, CTE Web site Publications Editor

The topic of in-state tuition rates for illegal students has become a hot topic, even in the records mentioned by prospective U.S. presidential candidates.  (i.e,  Rick Perry, Governor of Texas, who is a proponent of this plan.)

Perry’s position states that helping these students achieve a post-graduate education will provide a better educated public in the near-future years.  A better-educated person is a far better asset in the business world and able to make a contribution to society, in the long run.

Wouldn’t Perry’s statement be true of any prospective collegiate?  A better-educated person makes a greater contribution to business and society!

People who disagree with this plan feel that the legal residents deserve the slots available for post-graduate education as a benefit from the taxes their parents have been paying.

I don’t know how you feel about this, but I also look at it from the perspective of results of a post-graduate education:

• How many freshmen actually graduate from college? (Have we wasted a few years of subsidized tuition?)
• Do they have living/eating arrangements in college?
• How many students seek tuition aid (from any source, not just the Federal Government)?
• How many graduates pay back their student loans in full and on a timely basis?
• How many students are dependent on their parents’ financial support for the full college program?
• Do “illegal students” partake of the U.S. education and then return to their homeland, educated and contributing to their home society?

These points make a considerable difference to me when money (here in the U.S.!) is extremely tight, many workers here are out of jobs and income, and their children certainly will suffer in the near-future years to come. 

High school graduates who seek a college education and have been contributing legal citizens should have a preferential position in the available slots to attend a college/university.