Last semester, we wrote an editorial in favor of a bill that would grant in-state tuition status to students who were children of illegal immigrants. The bill required those students to attend a Florida high school for four consecutive years and plan to enroll in college within 12 months of graduation in Florida.
Well, Florida Sen. Steve Oelrich, who chairs the the Senate Higher Education Committee, made sure the bill did not make it to the Senate floor.
In response, protesters gathered outside the senator's office at the end of last week to encourage him to change his mind on this issue.
Oelrich defended his position to the protesters, saying it was a "tradition" in Florida to award in-state tuition based on the residency of the parents rather than the children.
He gave the example of his son, who goes to school in Colorado but pays out-of-state tuition because his parents live in Florida.
According the Associated Press, Oelrich also opposed the bill because it allowed students attending high schools near Florida's border to receive in-state tuition even if their parents lived in another state.
But Oelrich is missing the point.
The students who attend school in Florida but whose parents live in Georgia can still go to a school in Georgia and pay in-state tuition.
What choice do the children of undocumented immigrants have? Their parents came to the U.S. through the back door, leaving their children with no choice for an affordable education.
As we argued in our previous editorial about this issue, we should be careful not to place all the blame on the parents.
Our immigration system has many structural flaws that encourage illegal entry. The fact is, coming through the front door is extremely difficult, especially for people from non-Western countries. Our work visa system is strictly limited, and there is virtually no path to citizenship for unskilled laborers in this country.
In spite of all of this, it is still not the fault of the children that their parents came to the country without taking the legal, albeit cumbersome and nearly impossible, route.
These students would still have been required to attend school in Florida and would likely become upstanding citizens as a result of their chance to receive an education.
Otherwise, students who are the children of illegal immigrants would have to work in the state at a minimum-wage job for a full year before they could receive in-state tuition.
This not only puts them at a disadvantage compared to other students, but it also means that many might be discouraged from ever attending college in the first place.
Our policies should not discourage those people actively seeking to further their educations because of the actions of their parents.
