“What we’re talking about here are undocumented students who were brought to this country by their parents as minors and who have grown up here, gone to high school in California and graduated from high school and excelled in high school to the point where they’ve been admitted here either to the University of California, California State University or the state community college systems,” Schulman says.
“They are here through no fault of their own — and all that this law does is give them an opportunity to get an affordable college education.”
Other states with similar laws worry about the fate of the California law. Utah Attorney General Mark L. Shurtleff, in his request for the California Supreme Court to review the case, said that while California court decisions don’t legally bind other states, the lower court decision that found the California law conflicted with federal law “casts a pall over the viability of this public policy, not only in California, but nationwide.”
Kirwan, the University of Maryland System chancellor, says his schools need to have an in-state tuition law. In 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that undocumented children must be allowed to attend public K-12 schools.
But most states that allow undocumented students to attend their colleges usually charge much higher out-of-state tuition.
“Something needs to change. I hope the federal law can be corrected so we can address this issue in Maryland. Or, barring that, we’ve got to come up with some other creative ideas,” says
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