It’s not complicated. Students in Utah’s public colleges and universities are eligible for lower in-state tuition rates because they are, well, in the state.
Place of birth or citizenship status does not, and should not, enter into it. No matter what U.S. Department of Justice claims, or what some equally xenophobic members of the Legislature may now think.
Under a 2002 Utah statute, passed by a Republican supermajority Legislature and signed by a Republican governor, college students who are not citizens or legal residents can qualify for the lower in-state tuition rate if they attended high school in Utah for at least three years, graduated and started the process of gaining permanent legal status.
Most of those who meet that description are known as Dreamers, people who were born in another country but brought here as youngsters and now know no other land as their home.
The simple ideas are, first, that all of us benefit when every young person gets the most education their aptitude can handle and, second, that young Utah residents who meet those qualifications have lived here, worked here and they, and/or their families, have paid state and local taxes. That, not citizenship or green cards, is the way one earns in-state tuition.
The federal government recently filed suit to stop the practice in Utah and elsewhere, arguing against all reason that in-state tuition for non-citizen Utahns discriminates against citizens from Illinois, say, or Mississippi. The suit is absurd. Those students didn’t go to Utah schools or pay Utah taxes. That’s why they don’t get in-state tuition.
Now some in the Legislature, notably House Speaker Mike Schultz, instead of the normal Utah politician knee-jerk opposition to federal interference in state education policy, are talking about ending the in-state tuition eligibility for Dreamers.
Such a political suck-up would be downright cruel to a few ambitious young people and harmful to the state’s culture and economy overall.
Utah, a state founded by undocumented immigrants, should defend its law and its Dreamers, not capitulate without a fight. Voters should let their lawmakers know it’s what we demand.
Editorials represent the opinions of The Salt Lake Tribune editorial board, which operates independently from the newsroom.