Regents ban illegal immigrants from some Ga. colleges

[The Northerner]

Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The State Board of Regents voted on Wednesday to ban illegal immigrants from attending Georgia's top public colleges starting next fall, but that will not be the final action on the polarizing issue.

Lawmakers plan to introduce a bill to bar these students from all public colleges -- the 35 institutions in the University System of Georgia and the 26 in the Technical College System of Georgia. Both Democratic and Republican gubernatorial candidates have said they support such a measure.

"The regents were heading in the right direction, but I just wish they had taken it one step further," Sen. Don Balfour, R-Snellville, said. "A bill will be introduced this session that says no illegals in any public college. I have a hard time believing it won't pass."

The regents approved prohibiting illegal immigrants from attending any college that has rejected academically qualified applicants for the past two academic years because of space or other issues. The affected campuses are: University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, Georgia State University, Medical College of Georgia and Georgia College & State University. Officials could not say immediately how many qualified applicants had been turned away at those schools.

The ban means Georgia is following South Carolina, which prohibits illegal immigrants from all public colleges.

Read more: http://www.ajc.com/news/regents-ban-illegal-immigrants-680750.html

[Alcibiades]

1. "Georgia's top public colleges"

Not quite like South Carolina's top public colleges, but still.

[wilt the stilt]

6. For the uninformed

Georgia's top colleges(UGA and GT) are highly ranked.GT is 7th in the nation in top public colleges and UGA is 18th.
A funny thing happened 15 years ago. Zell Miller and the legislature passed a bill that allows all students possessing a 3.0 free tuition at state schools. To maintain that benefit one must retain a 3.0 in college. Before that Georgia lost 80% of their top grads. They now keep 85% of their top grads. Auburn was one of the places that use to get top grads from Georgia. Now they get the UGA rejects. There has been a complete reversal of standings for Georgia colleges.
To get into UGA you have to have almost 1300 on your SAT's and probably a 3.6 GPA with 5-7 AP courses.. My son probably will get in and My daughter is in.
I met a gentlemen who unfortunately took a package from AT&T and has never found meaningful employment again. His son got into Duke and Harvard and he took the fellowship foundation scholarship at UGA. It's a fabulous education and they pay you to go. You study all over the world.

As much as I don't like Georgia. they did step it up.

[Alcibiades]

10. I know

I live in ACC country. I was kidding a little, though Georgia still does not enjoy a reputation as a place where the life of the mind is much pursued. Great bass fishing, though.

Good for your daughter, and I hope your son has the same opportunity. Graduating from college debt-free is a great gift.

[wilt the stilt]

11. no question about that

It is absolutely anti intellectual as is the entire south. It still costs 10,000 a year.

[Alcibiades]

12. I'd never make a dig at the entire south!

I'm a North Carolinian myself. And no matter what jokes I make about Georgia, it's still Athens compared to South Carolina.

[wilt the stilt]

13. Generally speaking

The U.S. has a strain of anti intellectualism. Read Richard Hofstader's piece on it

Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (1963) and The Paranoid Style in American Politics (1965) describe the provincialism in American society, warning it contains much anti-intellectual fear of the cosmopolitan city, presented as wicked by the xenophobic and anti-Semitic Populists of the 1890s. They trace the direct political and ideological lineage between the Populists and anti-communist Senator Joseph McCarthy and McCarthyism, the political paranoia manifest in his contemporary time. His dissertation director Merle Curti noted about Hofstadter that: "His position is as biased, by his urban background . . . as the work of older historians was biased by their rural background and traditional agrarian sympathies".<14>

It is just more pronounced in the south

[Alcibiades]

14. I'm familiar with Hofstader

Classic. Daily we see more evidence that he was right.

[Mosaic]

2. This crap really pisses me off

You know who else deserves the title "illegals", the illegal employers. I propose banning all the dirt bag employers of undocumented workers from citizenship and basic human rights. Sound drastic, so does this immoral piece of crap. The damn hypocrites who abuse the immigrants while hating them deserve our scrutiny, scorn, and to be brought to justice.

[pipoman]

9. Really?

You don't think there should be minimum standards for taking advantage of publicly supported non-essential services? Minimum standards like obtaining legal immigration status?

[Archae]

3. If they are illegal immigrants...

Then they don't deserve to BE in colleges!

*ILLEGAL* immigrants, not legal ones.

[armodem08]

4. Deserve has nothing to do with it. It's good policy.

It's not like it's a good idea for those currently disenfranchised PEOPLE who live in the shadows of our society, getting exploited by everyone, to educate themselves and learn how to become a part of the system.

:sarcasm:

Seriously, all our immigration policies are designed to push these people to the margins of our society, much like the homeless. They exist, and they're not going anywhere. We need to start bringing these PEOPLE towards the center of our society. They're already paying payroll taxes, property taxes (through rent), and spending money in our economy. Let's give them the recognition for trying, not the ostracism of punishing them for not complying with an arcane regulation (I mean let's face it. It's still not a crime to be here without documents. It's a civil violation.)

Not illegal, undocumented. Get it straight.

[a la izquierda]

8. Right.

So an 18 year old kid who's parents brought him here illegally should be permanently damned.
You're the kind of Democrat that makes my skin crawl. There's lots of them around.

[tomg]

5. I noticed this one point:

"any college that has rejected academically qualified applicants for the past two academic years because of space or other issues"

So given the choice of increasing funding for public universities Or banning people from attending public colleges ( both current citizens who are academically qualified but unable to attend because there is no space and those not currently citizens who are, presumably, academically qualified) the state of Georgia decides to ban people.

Hmmmm, 1) We can increase public higher education, and help people train for jobs through which they will earn more money, thus increasing tax revenues OR 2)we can just keep them at the lowest economic level possible.

Way to go, idiots.

[One of Many]

7. Please note they have not banned undocumented immigrants outright

Key points in this policy - (quoted from the article)

1. "Georgia's public colleges have adopted new policies that officials say will prevent illegal immigrants from attending five high-demand schools and from being admitted ahead of legally and academically qualified residents at the rest of the state's public institutions of higher learning."

2. "Under the new policy, illegal immigrants will not be able to attend the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia Tech in Atlanta, the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, Georgia State University in Atlanta and Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville, all of which have turned away students."

3. "The system's other 30 colleges and universities will be able to admit undocumented students if" -

a. "they pay out-of-state tuition, which more than covers the cost of educating a student who pays it, and if" -

b. they are not accepted ahead of qualified students, according to Millsaps."


While not a pleasant policy, they have done everything possible to ensure that the public schools ARE still available to undocumented immigrants while appeasing the Georgia Legislature (aka Tea Party). It is my understanding that undocumented immigrants have always been subject to out-of-state tuition and fees so the only real change here is that US Citizens and documented immigrants would be given first priority in admissions.

[KamaAina]

15. Do they actually think that college-age kids are wading the Rio Grande to get into UGa?

At that age, immigrants are most likely undocumented because their parents came over and brought them as small children.

See, folks, this is why we need the DREAM Act. In fact, when just such an undocumented immigrant asked about the DREAM Act in a recent California gubernatorial debate, NutMeg Whitman accused her of just this: "taking a place (at Fresno State) away from a California resident". :wtf: She did not even bother to say "legal California resident"!