April 3, 2005 Oregonians for Immigration Reform:
IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT SENATE BILL 769 Senate Bill 769 is scheduled for a work session (vote) in the Senate Education Committee. The “Public Hearing and Possible Work Session” will be at 3:00 p.m., Wednesday, April 6, in Hearing Room D at the State Capitol Building. If you haven’t contacted members of the Senate Education Committee, (see list below), please do in the next three days, (Mon-Wed). SB 769 would give in-state tuition to illegal aliens. SB 769 is almost a clone of the discredited SB 10 that was introduced and defeated in the last legislative session. Section 2 (1) of Senate Bill 769 reads: "A student who is NOT A CITIZEN of the United States or who is NOT A LEGAL resident alien shall be considered a resident of this state for the purpose of determining tuition and fees at a state institution of higher education under control of the State Board of higher Education…" You can view the full text of the bill at: http://www.leg.state.or.us/05reg/measures/sb0700.dir/sb0769.intro.html or, in .pdf format, at: http://www.leg.state.or.us/05reg/measpdf/sb0700.dir/sb0769.intro.pdf If we are to defeat SB 769 we will need everyone in OFIR to contact members of the Senate Education & Workforce Committee and let them know why the should not support in-state tuition for illegal aliens. Please consider calling them by phone, sending e-mails, writing letters and if possible, going to the legislature and meeting with them in person. To find out who your State Legislator or Senator is and how to contact them you can do the following: 1. Call 1 (800) 332-2313 (Legislative Information and Citizen Access Line) 2. Visit http://www.leg.state.or.us/findlegsltr 3. Call the OFIR line at (503) 435-0141 Contact members of the Senate Education & Workforce Committee Vicki Walker, Chair (503) 986-1707 Charles Starr, Vice-chair (503) 986-1713 Ryan Deckert (503) 986-1714 Jeff Kruse (503) 986-1701 Bill Morrisette (503) 986-1706 SB 769 SHOULD BE VOTED DOWN Talking points: Rewarding illegal activity is wrong. At a time in which higher education is facing severe cuts in programs and tuition is being raised for students, SB 769 is completely illogical. In-state tuition fees are a highly subsidized by state taxpayers. It is very unlikely that a majority of Oregon’s taxpayers would approve having their tax dollars spent on educating illegal aliens, if they were asked to approve such a policy. Citizens are beginning to realize that an ever-increasing amount of money is being spent on the education of illegal aliens. This is money that should be spent on educating American school children. The Oregon Legislative Fiscal Office states that the average yearly cost for an in-state tuition student is about $4000 and the average cost for an out-of –state student is $14,000. That means that if SB 769 passes, the cost to Oregon taxpayers for the subsidized tuition of an illegal alien student will be about $10,000 per year, per student. Based on the report by the office of the Immigration and Naturalization Service that estimated 90,000 illegal immigrants in resided in Oregon in the year 2000, taxpayers could be paying millions of dollars to subsidize the coll ege education of illegal aliens. SB 769 would be in conflict with the 1996 illegal Immigration Reform and Responsibility Act of 1996 and if passed it would jeopardize the ability of Oregon to charge out-state-tuition to students from other states. Oregon currently receives about $89 million a year in out-of-state tuition fees. Arguments Against In-state Tuition for Illegal Aliens The following are arguments for denying in-state tuition to illegal aliens and respond to the arguments of exponents of that policy: • The illegal aliens are nationals of another country and their public education is the responsibility of that other country, not the United States. • The apologists for illegal alien’s claim that their benefit to the U.S. economy is that they will do work that Americans will not do. But their argument for in-state tuition is that these illegal aliens should not be forced by lack of education to do unskilled work. Thus, the advocates are arguing out of both sides of their mouths. • The fact is that illegal aliens may not legally hold a job in the United States. Therefore, tax dollars expended on the higher education of these illegal aliens in order to prepare them for professional jobs is wasted. • Alternatively, some proponents of allowing the in-state tuition couple their advocacy with the proposal that the illegal aliens be given legal resident status. This is a form of amnesty and is objectionable for all of the reasons that any amnesty for illegal aliens is objectionable -- most importantly, that it encourages others to follow in their footsteps and sneak into the country. • It is not unreasonable to assume that the policies of a state government in offering the benefit of in-state tuition to illegal aliens will attract illegal alien families to move to those states. Because of the costs of illegal immigration, the citizens of those states may rightly protest that such a policy is contrary to the best interests of the citizens of that state. • It is also not inconceivable that some foreign families will find the prospect attractive to send their youth to complete their secondary education in U.S. public schools in order to be able to take advantage of the in-state tuition possibility. The likelihood of this happening should not be underestimated. There is already a problem, especially in West Coast public schools of Asian families that send children on student visas to private U.S. schools, who shortly after arrival drop out of the private school and enroll in public schools. They are referred to as 'parachute kids'. • Finally, there is the issue of competition for scarce resources. State universities across the country are increasingly limiting enrolment, and, therefore, increasing the intake of illegal aliens into these schools will necessarily deny opportunities to U.S. citizen and legal resident children. Furthermore, given the low socio-economic conditions of most illegal alien families, even with in-state tuition for these students, most would need and qualify for means-tested scholarship assistance. Once again, given a finite amount of such assistance, any aid given to illegal aliens is aid denied to U.S. citizen and legal resident students. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: To see the full Committee agenda, which shows 7 bills in addition to the Work Session, visit: http://www.leg.state.or.us/05reg/agenda/webagendas.htm Click Senate Committee Agendas. Click Education and Workforce. Scroll down to April 6 agenda. Whether the Committee will follow the agenda exactly as shown is not known. Telephone number for the Senate Committee on Education and Workforce is: 503-986-1755.