From The Boston Globe 11/09/05
The Massachusetts tuition measure, which largely mirrors those passed in the other nine states, would allow the children of undocumented immigrants to obtain in-state college tuition rates if they attended Bay State high schools for at least three years, graduated from such a school, and signed an affidavit affirming that they have applied for citizenship….Immigrant advocates have estimated that about 400 Massachusetts students would take advantage of the lower tuition.
400 students? That’s what all this is about? As a UMass Boston student, it infuriates me that so much energy is being wasted on the effort to exclude 400 students (that is 0.006% of the commonwealth’s population) from higher education instead of actually improving conditions for the 30K current students.
Not to mention, my school is underfunded. If half of these 400 students attended UMass, these non financial-aid eligible students would pay $2 million dollars per year into the system. If someone is buying a $40K college education, let’s sell it to them. To quote Animal House, “We need the dues!”
(Note: UMass in state tuition is aprox. $10K/year)
typically don’t affect many people. As political movements go, it hasn’t improved most people’s lives.