In the shadow of California’s landmark passage of the DREAM Act (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) lies Oregon’s dead Senate Bill 742, which would have granted resident tuition at Oregon University System schools to illegal immigrants who live in the state.
On Oct. 9, California joined 12 other states that currently have state laws and policies allowing immigrants access to higher education. Under the new law, students who graduate from a California high school after attending school in the state for at least three years will be eligible for tuition equity. They must also prove that they are in the process of applying to legalize their immigration status, and they must meet financial need and academic standards.
The DREAM Act was signed in the aftermath of stark political examination of immigration in the United States, while Rick Perry was under fire from his fellow Republican vice presidential candidates for the Texas law that grants similar tuition equity privileges to illegal immigrants in Texas.
Oregon’s version of tuition equity, which held similar criteria to the California model, never made it past the House of Representatives last spring. After passing the Senate 18-11 with bi-partisan support, the bill failed to secure a discharge petition, which would have allowed the bill to bypass committee votes and go directly to the House floor. The failed petition collected only 26 signatures, all from Democrats, falling five signatures short of the minimum required to move the bill to a House vote.
Rep. Michael Dembrow (D-Portland) has been involved with the bill from the very beginning, and filed the discharge petition in the state senate.
“Even though co-chief sponsor for the bill Rep. Bob Jenson (R-Pendleton) started the discharge petition process, [we were] up against a couple of obstacles. One was that the Republican leadership essentially ordered their members not to sign it,” Dembrow said.
Jenson did not sign the petition, and later admitted to the Eugene Register-Guard that he was “ashamed of himself” for not adding his name to the petition.
The details of tuition equity bills have been met with hostile opposition from many members of the Republican party, as Sen. David Nelson (R-Pendleton) found out first hand. He was one of three Republican state senators to vote “Yes” on SB-742 in March.
“It was kind of a shock to some of my constituents,” Nelson said. “I always looked at this as an issue of equity. I’m an education guy. I think we need to have more access to education; we’re making it more expensive for students.”
His vote made him a pariah to right-wing conservatives who, among other retaliatory attacks, publicly questioned his mother’s heritage.
“You can disagree with me all you want, but you don’t have to call me names,” Nelson said. “Lars [Larson] had all his facts wrong. He was saying we would be paying $17,000 dollars a student to literally thousands of students. Thirty or 40 students would be affected by this thing. The state does subsidize students, but not to the tune of $17,000.”
In fact, tuition equity bills have proven to increase state revenue. Last year, conservative state legislators in Utah reconsidered their efforts to repeal Utah’s 10-year-old tuition equity law when they learned their university system would lose at least $1.5 million in tuition fees.
PSU Chief Diversity Officer Jilma Meneses believes that everyone has a stake in these bills, not just universities.
“It is a very progressive way of thinking,” Meneses said. “This gives millions of people around the U.S. more opportunities to contribute if they are educated. It is for the betterment of society.”
As other states adopt bills that grant opportunities to illegal immigrants, Meneses feels that the lack of strong action by Oregon politicians puts us behind the curve, endangering the state’s future.
“I see this as a setback in our growth and progressive ways,” she said.
When the Oregon legislature held its SB-742 hearing in May, legislators asked a young woman from California to come speak. She was able to go to UCLA as an undergraduate student despite her undocumented status in the U.S., and when her mother’s request for citizenship was approved after 13 years of California residency, she was then able to attend the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is now a teacher.
Dembrow was inspired by her testimony and insists he and others will continue to push for tuition equity.
“Personally, I’m prepared to submit the bill to the February session,” Dembrow said. “This time we’d start in the house.” He added that if it becomes clear the Republican leadership is immovable on this, then the SB-742 leadership will have to weigh the value of a hearing in 2012 versus waiting until 2013 and hoping for a Democratic majority in both the House and the Senate.