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Bill would bring in students on the outside of in-state tuition

By Robert Fisher
rfishe18@mscd.edu

Not all Colorado residents are eligible for in-state tuition at Metro, but Senate Bill 79 could fix this situation and make college more affordable for many.

On Jan. 30, Metro President Stephen Jordan testified before the Colorado Legislature’s State, Veteran and Military Affairs Committee in support of SB 79. The bill would clarify the definition of in-state tuition eligibility interpreted under House Bill 1023.

Unlike HB 1023, SB 79 is directly related to in-state tuition classification. Newly revised requirements under SB 79 would allow U.S. citizens who have attended a Colorado high school for the past three years and graduated from a Colorado high school to be considered residents for the purpose of in-state tuition.

HB 1023 is an anti-illegal immigration bill designed to block illegal immigrants from receiving state services, such as monetary aid for school. But the bill blocks services for people other than illegal immigrants.

Currently, in-state tuition eligibility is determined by the residency status of a student’s parents. Therefore, any student that cannot prove residency through their parents, such as students who were in foster care, are charged out-of-state tuition, approximately an $8,000 difference.

Last September, the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News reported that House Bill 1023 had a varying effect on in-state tuition eligibility, and not all state colleges and universities had the same requirements. Immediately after these stories were published, Metro changed its policy.

In response to the stories last fall, Executive Director of Higher Education David Skaggs asked Colorado Attorney General John Suthers for a ruling on whether students who are U.S. citizens, live in Colorado and whose parents are illegal immigrants could be eligible for in-state tuition.

Suthers noted that students benefit from the services, not their parents. Therefore, it should be possible for a student who is a U.S. citizen, although their parents may not be, to receive these benefits. However, the ruling was essentially moot. There were still guidelines to be met, including the fact that a student must prove his or her parent was a Colorado resident the previous year.

Students that do not meet these requirements would still be governed by the old system, which determines the student’s residency by their parent’s status. Students under 23 years of age are still tied to their parent’s residency status unless the student wishes to emancipate themself by documenting at least one year of work history.

“The attorney general’s opinion was helpful in the short term, but in the long term it is likely not going to meet all the requirements necessary for students that fall into these problems,” Jordan said. “We put together this bill to be a broader response both to the articles of last summer and to these others issues affecting students.”

Jordan said some students have non-residency status because they are fearful of outing their parents who are living in the country illegally. But he also said the problem isn’t just about students whose parents are undocumented.

“One of the reasons we went this way on the legislation is that I reviewed a number of applications that were in this very difficult category and made individual decisions on them myself because the admission staff were unsure if they (the student) met the criteria or not,” Jordan said. “That’s when I began to understand these other issues, like students in foster care, who fall into this category.”

Jordan, along with other members of the college, helped to draft the original language of the bill and was part of the group that approached Sen. Sandoval, a long time civil rights proponent, who has agreed to sponsor the bill.

“We knew this is an area that Sen. Sandoval has a great interest in,” Jordan said. “We went and talked with her, and she immediately was excited about taking on this bill.”

Sandoval submitted the original draft of the bill to the Legislature Drafting Office, the final stop for a bill going to the legislature for consideration. Since the intention of the bill is to increase the number of students eligible for in-state tuition and the Colorado Opportunity Fund, it will have a fiscal impact on the state and therefore must go though the Appropriations Committee before review by the Senate and the House.

Because the bill has to go through Appropriations, Jordan said a definite timeline was not clear, but he believes it may pass this spring.

Jordan said there is opposition to the bill by some members of the legislature who believe the bill would encourage more illegal immigration. However, Jordan said the bill would send more young people who are U.S. citizens to college. Exactly how many more is tough to say.

Overall, Jordan feels confident the bill will pass, although he says it may have a tougher time in the House where the bill lacks the leadership it has in the Senate.

“When you have the leadership of one or both houses on the bill it really strengthens the possibility of the bill being passed,” Jordan said, adding that so far, there is no organized opposition to the bill.