Salem eyes tuition equity

Support is growing in Salem for tuition equity, an idea that would, for the first time in Oregon, grant access to in-state tuition to undocumented high school graduates who meet certain requirements.

A House committee was slated to consider House Bill 2787 on Monday, after several changes were made to the bill last week.

At a rally in the capitol on Wednesday, hundreds of supporters gathered to push for swift passage of the bill.

“We feel it’s an educational issue, not an immigration issue,” Associated Students of Portland State University President Tiffany Dollar said. She said more than 300 supporters were in attendance, including about 20 from Portland State.

Already law in 13 states, including Washington, California and Texas, the bill would allow access to in-state tuition rates to students who have attended school in the U.S. for at least five years (three of them at an Oregon high school), graduate from an Oregon high school and demonstrate they have, or will soon, apply for citizenship.

Dollar said Oregon is one of a few states with a growing population of young people, the majority of whom are Latino, and that denying them access to these lower tuition rates is counterproductive.

“College folks make more, they pay more taxes and their children are more likely to go to college,” she said. “It’s just a basic right that should be available to everyone.”

Some opponents of the bill have claimed it will use much-needed taxpayer money or reduce access to students who are citizens already, but this is not the case, said PSU Student Senator Tia Gomez Zeller.

“We have capacity for everyone,” she said of the Oregon University System. Because the bill would not extend student loan availability to the affected students, no tax money would be used.

This school year, a PSU student taking 12 credits at in-state rates pays $2,125 per quarter, while the out-of-state rate would push the cost to $6,181, an increase of more than 190 percent.

“I know a lot of people who want to go but can’t afford it,” said ASPSU Multicultural Affairs Director Yesenia Silvia-Hernandez. “It will just bring more money to the state; it’s going to be a really good investment.”

A similar bill passed the Oregon State Senate in 2011 but died in the House committee. This time around, though, both houses are controlled by Democrats, who have previously shown more support for tuition equity, and the governor, also a Democrat, is a vocal supporter of the bill. Many other business, community and educational leaders also support the bill, according to a press release from the Oregon Student Association, including PSU President Wim Wiewel.

Another cause contributing to the growing awareness and support of the issue is the increasing advocacy of those most affected, Gomez Zeller said.

“Now we have something we didn’t have before: people not afraid to say they’re undocumented, [to say] ‘I’m going to fight.’”

A kickoff event was held by ASPSU on campus on Jan. 30, with student supporters creating some heart-shaped agitprop.

“We delivered 2,000 handmade valentines to all 90 legislators,” Dollar said. Students who want to get involved can make a difference by emailing their legislators expressing their support for the bill, which should come to a vote near the end of this month, she said.

In the end, Dollar said, what’s really important is the people affected, as moving testimony at the capitol on Wednesday showed.

“It takes a lot of courage to speak out,” she said. “Even some of the legislators cried. It really puts it in perspective.”