NASHVILLE, Tenn. — About two out of three registered voters in the state think Tennessee students whose parents brought or kept them in the country illegally should be eligible for in-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities, according to a poll released by Vanderbilt University on Tuesday.
The wide support for extending the tuition break to those immigrant students who went to high school in Tennessee included 55 percent of Republicans, and drew about an even split among tea party members.
The Republican-led legislature declined this year to pass legislation to make the change.
Republican Gov. Bill Haslam, who remained the state’s most popular politician in the poll with a 61 percent approval rating, also lent his support to this year’s in-state tuition bill. He posed for photos with some of the students when they visited the state Capitol.
“It’s fair to say that this is an issue that has broad support across the state,” said John Geer, co-director of Vanderbilt’s Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions.
For first time since 2012, voters picked health care as the top priority of state government about as often as they said the economy was most important.
The responses also show why congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump have a tough road ahead in reforming health care, said Josh Clinton, co-director of Vanderbilt’s Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions.
