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Thursday, May 10, 2007
Cheap tuition for illegals?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For nine years Luis Ramos has been living in the U.S. illegally. Now, he’s about to be one of an estimated 100 college students statewide who will be required to pay out-of-state tuition under a law that takes effect July 1. Its intent is to discourage illegal immigration.
Georgia is one of 10 states that allow illegals who graduate from high school here to attend public colleges by paying in-state tuition. That amounts to $1,946 per semester at Georgia State University, for example. Out-of-state tuition is $7,785. Ramos, now 19, came into this country illegally with his parents at the age of 10. He’s a graduate of Morrow High School in Clayton County where, he estimates, 100 illegals will be granted high school diplomas this year.
Tuition paid by college students who are legal residents of Georgia amounts to about 25 percent or less of the cost of providing their educations. Taxpayers provide the rest. The higher tuition for out-of-state students is to relieve Georgia taxpayers of the obligation to subsidize guests. A panel of the University System Board of Regents is being asked to restore the waivers.
The tuition question is important in one primary sense. Every public policy decision made rewards some behaviors and discourages others. A speeding fine “rewards” us, in the form of safer streets, for staying within the posted limits. A fine penalizes behaviors that put us and our fellow motorists at risk. Likewise, bestowing privileges and favorable tax treatment on marriage is to induce adults to enter into a relationship that best protects and serves children. Layer upon layer of messages, in the form of public policies, should encourage marriage as the most desirable sanctuary for children.
Charging out-of-state tuition is a policy messages to those who would enter this country illegally or who, once here, retain their allegiance to another country by declining to stand for citizenship. In this instances, two desirable public policy goals conflict. One is to discourage illegal immigration. The other is to cultivate an educated populace. The first trumps. When guests, invited or not, choose citizenship, the second prevails.
