Georgia is among a handful of states that refuses to allow students who meet the criteria of the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy to pay in-state tuition rates at public colleges.
Parents of these children brought them here at a very young age without legal sanction. The offspring attended and graduated from Georgia public schools, where many excelled academically; they speak English fluently and have never been convicted of a felony.
The federal government considers such students “legally present,” which prevents their deportation, allows them to work and provides them a Social Security number, although they cannot apply for U.S. citizenship. At the state level, legal presence is often sufficient to qualify for in-state tuition rates. But not in Georgia.
In 2013, the Department of Homeland Security announced DACA students are considered “lawfully present,” affirming the individual has temporary permission to be in the United States. The Georgia Board of Regents, though, continues to deny in-state tuition to DACA students, resting on thinly veiled semantics arguments between the terms “legal presence “ and “lawful presence.”
The 2008, Senate Bill 492 prohibited in-state tuition to unauthorized immigrants. The Board of Regents Policy 4.3.4 — on which it relies to deny in-state tuition to DACA students — requires “lawful presence” to qualify for in-state tuition.
Georgia is out of step with most other Southern states such as Florida, Texas, Mississippi and Tennessee, which grant in-state tuition rates to DACA students at least on some levels. Is this Georgia Board of Regents policy just a smokescreen for a modern form of segregation based on immigration status – Juan Crow replacing Jim Crow?
Georgia is going back to a time when it denied education to a certain group of people. Do we allow the Board of Regents to take the state back to that ugly era in its history?
DACA students attending public colleges are required to pay out-of-state tuition, which is often four times the cost of in-state tuition. In actual dollars, for example, the cost of in-state tuition for two semesters at the University of North Georgia is approximately $2,500, whereas out-of-state tuition is approximately $8,900.
For highly motivated DACA student, this barrier to postsecondary education often means dropping out during alternate semesters to work full-time to save for the next semester’s tuition.
This mean-spirited policy flies in the face of Georgia’s goal to strengthen its competitiveness by significantly increasing the number of Georgians with postsecondary school credentials. Georgia needs a productive, highly motivated, educated workforce. Already, we have lost many students to DACA-friendly states and other private universities that have offered them full scholarships. And thus, they take their talents elsewhere.
Denial of in-state tuition is just one of the Board of Regents’ onerous affronts to DACA students. Another Regents policy, enacted in 2010, bans DACA students from attending Georgia’s five selective public universities: The University of Georgia, Georgia State, Georgia Tech, Medical College of Georgia and Georgia College and State University.
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court of Georgia heard arguments in an in-state tuition lawsuit challenging Board of Regents policy. It is unfair and unconscionable to burden and thwart our highly motivated immigrant students any further. Hopefully, the Supreme Court and the court of public opinion will agree. Our legislators, our governor and the Regents need to re-think this damaging policy and take corrective action as soon as possible.
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