Last week, dozens of undocumented high school and college students attended hearings in the Massachusetts state house. They urged lawmakers to extend in-state tuition and state financial aid to all undocumented immigrants who have graduated from Massachusetts high schools, not just those with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status.
Several students testified they were forced to give up their dreams of going to college when faced with high out-of-state tuition bills, even though they had arrived in the U.S. as children and attended Massachusetts public schools.
Massachusetts is just one of many states around the country that has grappled recently with the undocumented immigrant population vying for in-state tuition. In Arizona, Maricopa County Community Colleges, fighting to offer their DACA recipient students in-state tuition, have been locked in a legal battle with the state’s Attorney General. In Georgia, the Supreme Court agreed to hear oral arguments in a case against the state’s Board of Regents brought by students with DACA who still have to pay out-of-state tuition.
With the lack of a comprehensive federal immigration overhaul, states have been deciding for themselves whether or not undocumented immigrants can pay in-state tuition at public colleges and universities for more than a decade. At least 20 states currently have policies allowing in-state tuition.
Read more at New America's Ed Central: http://www.edcentral.org/college-tuition-dreamer/