In-state tuition rates now granted to immigrants
As a private institution, Waynesburg University charges one tuition rate for every undergraduate student, regardless of where they live.
At state schools though, how much a student pays to attend college has everything to do with their home residence.
At Rutgers University in New Jersey, a student who does not live in the state can pay up to $14,000 more per year to attend.
In most of the United States, undocumented immigrants who came to America as minors with their parents must pay out-of-state tuition rates to attend college. As a result, according to the National Immigration Law Center, only five to ten percent of such students in the nation with high school diplomas go on to college.
The debate over the rightness of this began to gain steam in 2011, when the Development, Relief and Education for Minors Act was created to address the issue of giving legal status to immigrant minors.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, the DREAM Act would grant legal status as long as the individual “was under the age of 15 when he or she entered the country; has been physically present in the United States for at least five years; has earned a high school diploma or GED; is a person of good moral character; is not inadmissible or deportable under criminal or security grounds of the Immigration and Nationality Act; and was younger than 32 years of age when the law is enacted.”
Congress passed the act in 2013, but it does not include a provision forcing states to grant in-state tuition to immigrants, so many states have taken the issue to their own legislatures.
According to the Observer-Reporter, 15 states have so far enacted statutes that will allow undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as minors to pay in-state tuition, including: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Washington.
Such a statute is not in sight for Pennsylvania yet, but Jessica Sumpter, director of Admissions at Waynesburg University, said its impact on Waynesburg would not be large if it did come to pass.
“Regardless of whether someone is from Pennsylvania or from a different state, tuition is set across the board,” said Sumpter. “Even if that law is passed in Pennsylvania, it would not affect the difference of tuition for immigrants for Waynesburg.”
Waynesburg also does not attract a large number of foreign students, limiting the impact of the law on the university.
“The majority of our population of undergraduate students is from the surrounding five counties, with about 20 percent from out of state,” said Sumpter.
The one possible effect of a law like the DREAM Act on Waynesburg is that it would drop further down on some students’ list of college choices.
“The only thing I could see it affecting is that maybe students that may be undocumented or immigrants students may choose to pursue a state system school because they can have that in state tuition,” said Sumpter.
In this way, state schools could become the least expensive option for potential students.
Waynesburg does not differ from state schools, said Sumpter, in the fact that need-based financial aid is given to students based on the Federal Student Aid form.
Undocumented immigrants cannot file the FAFSA, resulting in very few financial aid opportunities for them.
California, New Mexico, and Texas have extended the right to this financial aid to undocumented immigrants, and it is under consideration in other states.
Many states have been debating the issue since the DREAM Act was first conceived, but, according to the NCSL, progress is stonewalled by politicians who fear such laws may encourage minors to emigrate to the U.S. illegally and use the DREAM Act to stay here safely.
The NCSL also said proponents of the law argue that undocumented students should not be punished for decisions their parents made on their children’s behalf.
The students’ parents are a large reason for why such students do not simply apply for green cards. The stipulations for legal residency have been tightened severely in the last decade, and doing this would likely result in the deportation of the students’ family members who are living here illegally.
DREAM related statutes are thus one of the only options for undocumented immigrant high school graduates to afford a college education in the country they have grown up in.