Senate, HALO boost bill

By By Estuardo Garcia (Contact)

Monday, March 7, 2005

Photo by Nicoletta Niosi

Andrea Pantoja, Mission junior, and Raymond Rico, Kansas City, Kan., senior, presented Rep. Sue Storm (D-Overland Park) with a Student Senate resolution Friday in the state capitol building in Topeka. The resolution was passed in support of a bill written by Storm. The bill allows undocumented immigrants who live in Kansas to pay in-state tuition.

Members of the KU Hispanic-American Leadership Organization met Friday with state officials in Topeka to show support for Kansas legislation that allows undocumented immigrants to receive in-state tuition.

HALO members went to the capitol as part of Hispanic Day on the Hill.

HALO members gave the officials a resolution passed by Student Senate in support of House Bill 2145, which took effect in July 2004. The resolution also denounces a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the law.

House Bill 2145 allows students to get in-state tuition if they meet certain conditions.

First, they must have lived at least three years in the state, received a degree from a Kansas high school or received their general equivalence diploma in the state, and must sign an affidavit stating they are on their way to obtaining legal residency status.

If they fail to get legal residence status, students must repay the state the difference between the amount actually paid and the amount they would have paid as a nonresident of the state.

Andrea Pantoja, Mission, junior, gave a copy of the resolution to Rep. Sue Storm (D-Overland Park), who wrote the house bill.

Similar tuition bills have been passed in California, Texas, New York, Utah, Washington, Illinois and Oklahoma. Kansas was the eighth state to pass this type of law.

“When I found out the facts, how could I say no?” Storm said. “It’s not just for these kids; it’s for Kansas.”

The Student Senate resolution was passed with an overwhelming majority during last Wednesday’s meeting. Raymond Rico, Kansas City, Kan., senior, and Jason Boots, Plano, Texas, junior, introduced the resolution to the Senate.

They said that many of the students who are affected by the law moved to the United States with their parents when they were children and had no choice in the matter.

They said they wanted those students to be given an equal opportunity to get a higher education.

According to federal law, every state is required to provide children a K-12 education, regardless of legal status.

Senators who argued against the bill said they ideologically agreed with the proposal, but said it was not fair to other students. They worried it would create problems.

Alvar Ayala, Torreon, Mexico, senior, helped author the Senate resolution. He wanted students to know the importance of the bill and wanted to people to realize what it’s about.

“It’s not an issue of immigration, it’s an issue of education,” he said.

The law currently affects 30 students in Kansas, Rico said.

Two students at the University qualify for in-state tuition under the bill, according to the Registrar’s Office. It is against the office’s policy to release the names of the students.

— Edited by Jesse Truesdale

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