Skaggs seeks tuition break for kids of illegal immigrants
Ed chief wants in-state tuition
Berny Morson, Rocky Mountain News
Published August 3, 2007 at midnight
Colorado higher education director David Skaggs says he will try to remove legal barriers to in-state tuition for Colorado students whose parents are in the country illegally.
"The disconnect is, we treat these kids as Colorado kids for purposes of K-12 education, and then suddenly they fall off the edge of the Earth," Skaggs said. "Then we try to encourage them to think about going to college, and the status of their parents hasn't been an issue until suddenly they're faced with this resident tuition question."
Nonresident tuition at some schools can be four times the resident rate. At the University of Colorado, for example, 2006-07 tuition and fees for most resident undergraduates was about $5,600, while the tab for nonresidents ran $23,500. The issue has become a hot political topic nationally, and state law is vague on the issue of children who are born in the U.S to illegal immigrant parents.
Relying on a 5-year-old attorney general's opinion, Metropolitan State College of Denver charges nonresident tuition to Colorado students whose parents are here illegally.
CU, on the other hand, charges in-state tuition to such students, based on the advice of its counsel, spokesman Bronson Hilliard said.
The dispute involves only those students under 23 years of age who are not emancipated, meaning that they are still claimed by their parents as dependents on their income taxes.
Skaggs said he has asked the Colorado attorney general's office to clarify the law. He said if the advice from the attorney general is that a child of illegal residents doesn't qualify for in-state tuition, he will ask the legislature to change the law.
"My hope is that they (the attorney general's staff) will say that an otherwise eligible Colorado . . . student shouldn't be disqualified from resident tuition because his or her parents happen not to be able to document their status in the country," Skaggs said.
Nate Strauch, spokesman for Attorney General John Suthers, said that an answer could come in a few weeks.
morsonb@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5209
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