U.S.-born children take fight over tuition to court

[RamboLiberal]

Source: USA Today

State governments have been grappling with the question of whether to provide in-state college tuition rates to illegal immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children.

Now a Florida lawsuit is highlighting a rare practice of forbidding U.S.-born students — citizens by birth — from getting in-state tuition because their parents are illegal immigrants.

Five students, all born in the U.S. to illegal immigrant parents, sued the state last month for denying them in-state tuition rates even though they'd lived in Florida, graduated from state high schools and were entering state colleges and universities. They claim the higher out-of-state rates they were charged either forced them to drop out or take fewer classes, delaying their eventual graduation.

Kassandra Romero, 18, enrolled at Palm Beach State College in June and was handed a $4,000 bill for the semester — more than three times the in-state rate. She left school to work as a waitress to save enough money to re-enroll in January.



Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/story/2011-11-02/florida-lawsuit-education-in-state-tuition-illegal-immigrants/51050858/1

[midnight]

1. K&R.. Florida seems like they are competing with Wisconsin for ridiculousness.

All last night and through this morning a debate about adding an amendment to a budget about college tuition pitting college students against each other for grant money...

[MADem]

2. I think FL is butting up against the Constitution on that score.

But then, stupidity in government is their modus operandi and always has been, it seems.

[alp227]

4. see my post 3, looks like FL is frustrated that birthright citizenship will never be eliminated

[MADem]

5. I guess FL figures, like Porgie did, that the Constitution is "just a piece of paper."

They've wiped their ass on it once before, after all!

They just might think they can get away with it again, the bastards!

[alp227]

6. seems that former Confederate states still are bitter over the Civil War

ever notice common traits between former confederate states: voting for Republicans, right-to-work for less, and also still trying to find loopholes in the civil rights laws to sneak in racism?

[MADem]

7. In the case of FL, their history is rooted in corruption. They are just a

corrupt place, and they don't give a damn who knows it. They've got some great winter sunshine, though!

[alp227]

3. 14th amendment! 14th amendment!

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States..."

Hey Florida! Admit it...just straight up say "no more birthright citizenship" instead of being cowards hiding behind scapegoating discrimination, OK?

[Nay]

8. I have no idea which lawyer is advising the school, but he/she should

be fired.

[McCamy Taylor]

9. These are the crop pickers of tomorrow if the right/capitalists have their way.

Who better to toil in the fields doing crop picking work that no one but an immigrant will do? Deny the born in the USA kids education, social services, and they will pick all those crops the way that slaves used to. And if anyone complains about non-citizens getting jobs, the farm owners can say "It's ok. They were born in this country."

[pampango]

10. Palm Beach editorial supporting the lawsuit

The Southern Poverty Law Center is suing the state on behalf of Ms. Romero and four other Florida high school graduates, all U.S. citizens, who are getting the same second-class treatment by the state's colleges and universities. The lawsuit argues the state is violating their constitutional right to equal protection under the law since they are being treated differently from other citizens whose parents are legal residents.

The class-action lawsuit is compelling, yet Florida's students should not have to wait for it to wind its way through the federal courts. The state Department of Education and the state Board of Governors, which respectively oversee state colleges and universities, should revoke this rule and stop discriminating against Floridians who deserve the same rights as their classmates.

A Democratic state lawmaker from Jacksonville has responded with a bill that would eliminate this fundamental unfairness, but his bill's prospects in the Republican-controlled Legislature are tenuous at best. And, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center attorney who filed the lawsuit, the residency requirement is not even mandated by state statute. The requirements arose, the attorney says, in regulations set up by the Department of Education and the Board of Governors, which flesh out general state laws with administrative rules.

California and Colorado once had similarly wrongheaded policies but rescinded them after legal challenges. There's no reason to think Florida's rules will fare any better, and it would be wrong for state officials to wait and see. Repealing this harmful, un-American provision would spare Florida further shame and let Ms. Romero and untold other aspiring students back into the classroom.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/editorials/in-state-tuition-bias-against-true-floridians-1939546.html

Interesting to see if the "Republican-controlled Legislature" in Florida will touch this since it involves illegal immigrant families even though the students themselves are Americans.

[alp227]

11. it's really telling how CONs won the immigration issue

look at the top rated comments that side with the school and say "deport them all"