The month of May marks graduation for more than 3 million U.S. high school students and many will soon turn to calculating the cost of college tuition against the scholarships, work-study jobs, and loans that they've managed to pull together. But for some students there is only one deciding factor in figuring the price of higher education: immigration status.
Many undocumented students have been enrolled in U.S. public schools since kindergarten, but their education effectively ends at high school graduation. Without citizenship, these students do not qualify for federal student loans, grants or scholarships, nor are they eligible for most private scholarships. As a result, it is nearly impossible for these students to finance any form of higher education.
In-state tuition at public colleges and universities is thus often their last best chance to afford college, although by federal law undocumented students remain ineligible for this residency benefit regardless of the number of years they have lived in the state. This situation poses a difficult dilemma. Should these students, many of whom have attended the same schools as their citizen peers since grade school, be granted legal status for the purpose of higher education? Given the significant investment taxpayers have already made in these young people, the answer is a resounding yes.
As the public debates "paths to citizenship" for the nearly 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, proposed federal legislation would give undocumented students provisional legal status to qualify for in-state college tuitions. The DREAM (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) Act, would repeal the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, and provide qualified undocumented students conditional legal status to attend college. Specifically, the terms would apply to students who are under the age of 21, have lived in the United States for at least 5 years, have earned a high school diploma or equivalent and who demonstrate "good moral character." Qualified students would be granted conditional permanent resident status for six years, during which they must graduate or accrue at least two years of either military service or higher education.
The DREAM Act would also give states the power to determine residency policies for tuition purposes, an especially important provision as states move forward with their own immigration legislation. According to the National Conference of State Legislators, 46 bills related to immigrant education assistance and enrollment requirements have been introduced in 20 states so far this year. Last month, Nebraska became the tenth state to pass legislation that would make certain undocumented immigrant students eligible for in-state tuition. Other states, most recently Wyoming, have enacted legislation that would bar undocumented immigrants from participating in certain scholarship programs, or from enrolling in state public institutions altogether.
College is a financial stretch for most students so the debate over providing tuition benefits to an additional group of students is understandably a heated one. The heart of the matter, however, is not about in-state tuition rates or even about fairness over who deserves what in America.
The real issue is about consistency in our message about the value and purpose of education. According to a recent Pew Hispanic Center report, there are more than 1.5 million undocumented children currently living in the United States. These kids will get a free public elementary and secondary education, provided by law to all students regardless of immigrant status. To effectively drop them from the system once they meet, and even exceed, the requirements for high school graduation and college admission, is simply inconsistent and illogical. Just when these young people have proved that they can achieve academically, when they are ready to refine their skills and learn how best to contribute to society, we pull the rug out.
Regardless of their immigration status, it is unlikely that these students, a population which is projected to rise for at least the next several decades, will leave the United States. What role, then, will they play in our society? Is the cost to the nation of granting legal status and college access more or less than doing nothing? See such students as an untapped resource of talent and intelligence, or see them as "returns on investment" for years of publicly funded elementary and secondary schooling. Either way, they offer more potential if they are college educated than if they are not.
