Judge: Fla. can’t charge students with undocumented parents higher, out-of-state tuition
Source: Washington Post
Students at Floridas public colleges and universities cannot be charged higher out-of-state tuition simply because their parents are in the U.S. illegally, a federal judge ruled.
U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore determined the policy violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution by forcing those students to unfairly pay three times as much as Florida residents. Children born in this country are citizens whether or not their parents have legal immigration status.
The ruling Friday came in a lawsuit filed by the Montgomery, Ala.-based Southern Poverty Law Center on behalf of several Florida students who were denied in-state tuition because they could not prove their parents are in this country legally. The centers deputy legal director, Jerri Katzerman, said Tuesday that Moores ruling could give thousands of students greater access to an education.
State Rep. Hazelle Rogers, a Lauderhill Democrat who sponsored legislation to scrap the policy, said the ruling comes as welcome news. The bottom line is simple: a U.S. citizen should be treated like a U.S. citizen no matter who their parents are, Rogers said.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/judge-fla-cant-charge-students-with-undocumented-parents-higher-out-of-state-tuition/2012/09/04/6aa32496-f6c6-11e1-a93b-7185e3f88849_story.html
The story indicated that this ruling could affect as many as 9,000 students in Florida. Similar rulings have happened in other states. My guess is those were states run by republicans.
The odd thing is that these students were being charged out-of-state tuition not because they were illegal immigrants (they are Florida residents and American citizens) but because they could not prove that their parents were not here illegally.
Once again a court has to clean up after a republican state legislature and governor that go after those supposed 'others' who are out there trying to get 'us'.
elleng
(131,202 posts)sakabatou
(42,186 posts)pampango
(24,692 posts)The Republican-controlled Florida Legislature has refused to dismantle this glaring inequity in college admissions policy, Fullwood said. The bottom line is simple: A U.S. citizen should be treated like a U.S. citizen regardless of who their parents are.
http://jacksonville.com/news/florida/2012-09-04/story/federal-judge-says-legal-residents-cant-be-forced-pay-out-state
During testimony for the bill, Sen. Steve Oelrich, a Gainesville Republican who chairs the Florida Senate committee on Higher Education, interrupted a student who said Floridas policy was unfair because shes a legal residents.
http://stateimpact.npr.org/florida/2012/09/04/fla-department-of-education-reviews-decision-on-in-state-tuition-for-students-with-undocumented-parents/
While I am not sure how the higher tuition rate for Florida resident US citizens based on the legal status of their parents, I know which party loves to make life as difficult as possible for illegal immigrants (romney's 'self-deportation' policy) and which other party enacts state Dream Acts for the children of these immigrants.
Posteritatis
(18,807 posts)WilmywoodNCparalegal
(2,654 posts)even though I had lived in NC 2 years by the time I went to college. Never thought I should have paid out of state tuition, since I was a legal resident of NC for more than 12 consecutive months. However, at the time, NC did not allow for in-state tuition if you had a visa (whether it was a student visa or as a dependent of someone with an employment-based visa).
Pterodactyl
(1,687 posts)pampango
(24,692 posts)Florida was charging them out-of-state tuition because they could not prove that their parents were legal immigrants.
I think most public universities do charge out-of-state rates to foreign students regardless of how long they have lived in a state. It is one of the ways that they say they subsidize tuition rates for in-state students.
bluestateguy
(44,173 posts)nt
ZombieHorde
(29,047 posts)tammywammy
(26,582 posts)alp227
(32,065 posts)MICHAEL MOORE? Wow.