KBOR > News > 2004 > Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 19, 2004

BOARD OF REGENTS ISSUES STATEMENT ON LAWSUIT CHALLENGING UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANT TUITION LAW

Today Reginald L. Robinson, the President and CEO of the Kansas Board of Regents, issued the following statement in response to a lawsuit filed in Federal District Court in Topeka challenging the new state law that provides in-state tuition for certain undocumented immigrants.

"The Board of Regents supports the concept of expanded educational opportunity that this new law represents. Given the increasingly global and competitive economic environment that confronts us, few would dispute that education after high school is crucial to the success of the communities in which we live. We all benefit when the most talented and eager among us – those who have grown up in our communities and graduated from our high schools – enjoy broad opportunities to further their education. Laws such as this one, which remove barriers to educational access, are helpful and important in that regard.

Under this new law, which is similar to provisions enacted in a number of other states, students who attend a Kansas high school for three years and obtain either a Kansas high school diploma or a Kansas-issued GED, are, if they otherwise qualify for admission, eligible to enroll in the state’s public colleges and universities at in-state rates without regard to their immigration status. Because eligibility under these provisions is based on high school attendance rather than residency, they do not, as some erroneously claim, violate applicable federal law.

Students who benefit from this law – Kansas high school students – will still confront obstacles that others do not face. For example, they will be ineligible to receive either federal or state financial aid, no matter how pressing the need they demonstrate. They must also submit affidavits through which they commit to pursue citizenship or other appropriate immigration status once they are eligible to do so.

The United States Supreme Court determined years ago that immigrant students must not be denied the opportunity to attend our primary and secondary schools on account of their immigration status. The Constitution
requires us to invest in their education at that stage, therefore it makes no sense to erect unnecessary barriers in the path of some of the state’s most promising high school graduates after we have already invested heavily in their learning and just as they are prepared to move to the next critical stage of their educational development.

The Kansas Board of Regents, who unanimously endorsed the legislative proposal to grant in-state tuition to certain undocumented immigrants, would like to thank the members of the Kansas Legislature who voted in favor of this proposal and Governor Kathleen Sebelius who signed it into law. We would also like to thank Senator Sam Brownback, Representative Dennis Moore and Representative Todd Tiahrt who have displayed their support for this important issue by cosponsoring similar legislation in Congress."


For more information contact
Kip Peterson, Director of Government Relations & Communications, at (785) 296-3421.