Budget may cut immigrant tuition

by Rachel Patzer

Friday, March 11, 2005 00:00

Illegal immigrants graduating from a Wisconsin high school could get in-state tuition under a provision in Gov. Jim Doyle’s budget proposal.

State Rep. Pedro Colon, D-Milwaukee, formally announced the provision at a press conference held at the Capitol Thursday.

“Allowing graduates of Wisconsin high schools to pay in-state tuition will benefit not only the student themselves, but the communities in which they reside as well,” Colon said at the conference.

Colon spokesperson Bethany Ordaz said the current system in which undocumented students must pay out-of-state tuition to attend the University of Wisconsin four-year colleges or technical colleges should be changed.

“Right now, even if [undocumented students] get good grades … they have to pay out-of-state tuition because they don’t have a social security number,” Ordaz said.

According to Ordaz, Colon proposed similar legislation last year but it never came up for a vote in the legislature. She said now that the governor has included the provision in his budget, it has a “good shot” of being passed by the Joint Finance Committee, especially because Colon is on the committee.

Colon was joined by several other state legislators as well as community supporters of Doyle’s new provision. But some legislators are already planning to convince the Joint Finance Committee to scrap the provision along with much of Doyle’s other budget proposals.

State Rep. Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford, and state Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend, said they will attempt to stop Doyle’s provision from passing in the Joint Finance Committee. The legislators claim providing lowered tuition for undocumented residents is unfair to legal Wisconsin students working hard to seek a college degree.

“This will take away slots from Wisconsinites at the university and tech colleges and also take away opportunities, especially from rural Wisconsinites,” Suder said. “These spots are very competitive, and to give tuition breaks to [illegal immigrants] is rewarding bad behavior.”

Suder also added higher education is a privilege earned by Wisconsin citizens and rewarding people for a committed crime sends the wrong signal to individuals who want to come to this country legally.

A cost estimate of providing in-state tuition to undocumented students has not yet been completed and opponents disagree on the potential fiscal impact on the state.

Ordaz said there is no cost attached to it yet, primarily because there is no way to collect data on the number of undocumented students in the state.

“It wouldn’t be hundreds of students,” Ordaz said.

But Suder noted because there is no cap on the program, the costs could potentially be quite high.

“On first glance … this will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars over four to six years,” Suder said.

A group of citizens, students and community leaders of the Coalition for Educational Access will be holding public hearings across the state regarding the legislation in an effort to move the provision forward. If passed by the Joint Finance Committee, the state legislature will vote on the measure this spring.