{"id":244079,"date":"2010-12-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-28T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/california-supreme-court-upholds-state-law-allowing-qualified-undocumented-students-to-pay-in-state-tuition\/"},"modified":"2010-12-28T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-12-28T08:00:00","slug":"california-supreme-court-upholds-state-law-allowing-qualified-undocumented-students-to-pay-in-state-tuition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/california-supreme-court-upholds-state-law-allowing-qualified-undocumented-students-to-pay-in-state-tuition\/","title":{"rendered":"California Supreme Court upholds state law allowing qualified undocumented students to pay in-state tuition"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Margie Palmer | SDUN\u00a0Reporter
\n<\/strong>
\nThe California Supreme Court has voted to uphold AB 540, the controversial state law allowing undocumented
\nstudents to qualify for in-state college tuition fees if they attended a California high school for three years.<\/p>\n

The unanimous ruling came in response to a class action suit filed in Dec. 2005 by U.S. citizens paying
\nhigher nonresident tuition. The plaintiffs alleged they were discriminated against because illegal aliens were paying lower tuition provided to California residents.<\/p>\n

According to court documents, the initial complaint alleged California\u2019s public colleges and universities
\nviolated federal law by engaging in an \u201cIllegal Alien Tuition Scheme,\u201d granting undocumented students an exemption denied to U.S. citizens who are not residents of California.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs further alleged AB 540 violated the rights of nonresident students under the privileges or immunities clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which states, \u201cNo State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n

The court found that because the exemption is provided to all in-state students who have attended high school in California for three years and meet other requirements, including having graduated or attained a G.E.D. (or passed the California High School Proficiency Exam); have registered or are enrolled at an accredited higher education
\ninstitution; have or plan to file an affidavit stating intent to apply for legal residency; and are not currently in possession of a valid non-immigrant visa; that the exemption is not based on California residency, but other criteria, and thus does not violate federal law.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re pleased with the ruling. These students were brought here at a young age by no fault of their own by their parents,\u201d said Lieutenant Gov. Abel Maldonado, who co-authored the bill. \u201cThese students are still paying for an education, it\u2019s not free. They\u2019re not eligible for federal financial aid. It only allows them to receive in-state tuition.\u201d<\/p>\n

The website AB540.com points out that for 2009-10, the total average in-state fees for a full-time undergraduate student attending school at UC California is $9,285. For out-of-state students, that number jumps to $32,002. In-state students attending California State Universities pay $4,026, compared to $11,160 for non-residents. Those attending California Community Colleges, on average, will spend $480 per year, compared to $3,360 for non-residents.<\/p>\n

Fresno State Student Body President and AB 540 advocate Pedro Ramirez, who graduated from high school in the top 10 percent of his class, said the ruling will allow him to stay in school and move on toward a better future.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t until sometime between my junior and senior year that I found out I was undocumented.
\nWhen my parents informed me I wasn\u2019t a citizen and that because of this my options in this country would be limited, I contacted mycounselors and advisors,\u201d Ramirez said. \u201cThey told me about AB 540, and when I got into Fresno State I worked hard to be able to pay the tuition. I worked in restaurants, I cut lawns, and I applied for community
\nscholarships.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the ruling, he said, AB 540 graduates from throughout the state have contacted him with their stories.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of these people have gone onto graduate school,\u201d he said. \u201cSome are policemen. Some are now firemen. Some are doctors and lawyers. This might not have been possible had they had to pay out of state tuition.\u201d San Diego Community College District (SDCCD) Public Information Officer Richard Dittbenner said the ruling would not affect how things are being done on SDCCD campuses, which include City, Mesa, Miramar and continuing education campus locations. He said that it\u2019s not just undocumented students who benefit from AB 540.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been obeying the law since it was passed, so we will not be making any changes as to how we\u2019ll be operating,\u201d Dittbenner said. \u201cWhat people don\u2019t realize is that AB 540 also applies to U.S. residents, but a lot of people don\u2019t talk about that because it doesn\u2019t have as sexy an appeal.\u201d<\/p>\n

A student from New Jersey who moves in with a grandparent in North Park and completes three years of high school in California, Dittbenner said, is also AB 540 eligible.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe majority of AB 540 students are legal U.S. residents,\u201d he said. \u201cUpholding the current law is important, because we\u2019re going to need to have qualified and educated people in California. If we don\u2019t have more college graduates in California by 2020 the economy of the state is going to stall.\u201d<\/p>\n

A November press release by the California Public Policy Institute said that if current educational trends continue, the state will not have enough college-educated workers for jobs and skills likely to be in demand in 20 years. The survey further found that 73 percent of those polled think the price of a college education keeps students who are qualified and motivated from attending.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere else are these graduates going to come from? Out-of-state tuition can be quite expensive,\u201d Dittbenner said. \u201cSupporting the education of students who have been accepted to colleges or universities just makes sense. It\u2019s the right thing to do.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Margie Palmer | SDUN\u00a0Reporter The California Supreme Court has voted to uphold AB 540, the controversial state law allowing undocumented students to qualify for in-state college tuition fees if they attended a California high school for three years. The unanimous ruling came in response to a class action suit filed in Dec. 2005 by […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":746,"featured_media":244078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"California Supreme Court upholds state law allowing qualified undocumented students to pay in-state tuition","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11593,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-no-images","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/746"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}