Some Times It Pays To Break The Law

Over on The Political Blogspot, J. Huston posted an editorial about a recent California Supreme Court case.  This case ruled in favor of illegal immigrants being granted the right to pay in-state tuition for state colleges and universities, instead of more expensive out-of-state tuition.  The author points out that this ruling was based on 2001 law that any legal or illegal student that attends a Californian high school for three years is entitled to in-state tuition.  He expresses his dislike for this ruling, pointing out that these immigrants are in the state illegally, and should not be entitled to in-state tuition.  He shows that he is pro education and equal rights, but the fact that immigrants are not citizens should separate them from the educational rights that citizens of the country are granted.  The author also believes that these increased benefits will encourage more illegal immigrants to enroll, which means that some citizens "will be denied admitance(sp)."  He obviously believes that citizens should not be in competition with illegal immigrants for one of the limited spots in state colleges and universities. 

J. Huston writes that this type of law gives another incentive to entering our country illegally and will only further the amount of illegal immigrants in our country.  He feels that we need to reverse this and "start removing these incentives from our society and instead provide these incentives to people who immigrate legally."  Because of these factors, he disapproves with the state courts ruling and would like for this to be escalated to the U.S. Supreme Court for further review.

I tend to side with students to get a good education in this country, but on this specific issue I would have to agree with the author.  Even though the students may not have a choice in coming to the country with their parents, they should not be allowed to compete with legal citizens for a spot in highly competitive schools.  I would have liked to seen some statistics on how many illegal immigrants attend high school long enough to be eligible for this program. I would like to think it is a small minority of total college students.   It would be nice to know what kind of impact can be expected from this ruling.