{"id":5012,"date":"2012-02-17T19:00:30","date_gmt":"2012-02-18T00:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=5012"},"modified":"2012-02-21T15:59:47","modified_gmt":"2012-02-21T20:59:47","slug":"some-students-with-incarcerated-absent-parents-pay-higher-tuition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2012\/02\/17\/some-students-with-incarcerated-absent-parents-pay-higher-tuition\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Students With Incarcerated, Absent Parents Pay Higher Tuition"},"content":{"rendered":"
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miss_millions \/ flickr<\/p>

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A bill seen mostly as an effort to give immigrant families cheaper college tuition rates has died in the Florida Senate Judiciary Committee.<\/p>\n

The failed SB 106 would have allowed undocumented students and legal Florida residents with undocumented parents to pay in-state tuition rates, which are up to three times less expensive than the out-of-state rates<\/a> they currently pay.<\/p>\n

But the current law doesn\u2019t only keep immigrant families from accessing the cheaper rates. It can also affect Florida-born students with Florida-born parents who are incarcerated, deceased or absent.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does not just impact Hispanics or Latinos or Florida\u2019s immigrant community which includes Haitians and Jamaicans, it also includes your typical American,\u201d said\u00a0Desmond Meade,<\/a>\u00a0president of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, which works on civil rights issues of convicted felons who have served their sentences.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeven out of 10 households are just one paycheck away from being homeless, and so you can have a situation where the child is separated from the parent, the parent is incarcerated, the parent dies, and what is that young person supposed to do? Making them pay higher tuition because their parents aren\u2019t around is not fair.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unless students are over age 25, financially dependent according to federal tax forms, or married; they must provide the Florida residency documents of their parents, or legal guardians in order to qualify for the cheaper in-state tuition rates. If students cannot access those documents, they cannot prove they are residents for tuition purposes.<\/p>\n

Meade says Florida\u2019s law creates more barriers for vulnerable U.S.citizen students to receive an education in the state. And he questions the logic behind the law.<\/p>\n

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College students Nanci Palacios and Leonardo Yepez, were among two dozen students wearing orange graduation caps during the SB106 hearing to show their support of in-state tuition for all Florida students.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWhy should anything have to do with your parents,\u201d Meade said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, the bottom line is you have a young person that is trying to improve their lives, that is trying to do better for themselves and in turn do better for their community.\u201d<\/p>\n

It Comes Back To Immigration<\/strong><\/p>\n

If the bill had passed, it would have opened the door for all Florida students, including undocumented students and Florida-born students with undocumented parents, to access the lower rate.<\/p>\n

Sen. Steve Oelrich, R-Gainesville has said it wouldn’t seem right to deny the lower rate to U.S. citizens in other states, but not undocumented families in Florida.<\/p>\n

“Why would we give favor to children of illegal aliens over children of legal, out-of-state, longtime American citizens?”<\/p>\n

Similar in-state tuition bills have made their way in and out of the Florida Legislature since 2003.<\/p>\n

This year, Florida lawmakers narrowly defeated the bill 4-3.\u00a0But last year, the same Senate Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to pass in-state tuition, which later died in the Legislature.<\/p>\n

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