A California appellate court made a sensible ruling
As a California tax payer, my taxes have, for years, been paying for college educations for illegal immigrants. I certainly admire anyone who is able to work hard and get into college, but I have a fundamental objection to paying my hard earned money so that someone who is in America illegally can get a college education. That means that someone who is in America legally is not getting that same money or the opportunity to get that quality education. It also means that my taxes are higher so that I have less money for my own family and their education.
That may all be about to change, thanks to a sensible ruling from a California Appellate Court:
A state appellate court has put a financial cloud over the future of tens of thousands of undocumented California college students, saying a state law that grants them the same heavily subsidized tuition rate that is given to resident students is in conflict with federal law.
In a ruling reached Monday, the state Court of Appeal reversed a lower court’s decision that there were no substantial legal issues and sent the case back to the Yolo County Superior Court for trial.
“It has a huge impact,” said Kris Kobach, an attorney for the plaintiffs and a law professor at the University Missouri at Kansas City. “This is going to bring a halt to the law that has been giving in-state tuition to illegal immigrants.”
He said it is a big win for California taxpayers who have been subsidizing education for undocumented immigrants.
This is no small victory. When you read the rest of the news article from which I quoted, you’ll appreciate how California taxpayers have been forced to pay huge dollar amounts for illegal immigrants, even as out of state students who are legal American residents have been prevented from attending California colleges, while legal American students who live out of state have been charged huge premiums to attend school in California, even while the illegal aliens get a discount.
Even with the Appellate ruling, things still aren’t great. The Federal law, rather than saying that people who are here illegally shouldn’t be using my money for their benefit, simply says that, when it comes to higher education, illegal aliens have to be subject to the same treatment as any other American citizen — which either means charging illegal aliens the premium price, or dropping the tuition price for all students, whether in state or out of state. Nevertheless, it’s a start, because it’s going to force Californians to confront the true price of illegal aliens on our education system.
