For Immediate Release
April 21, 2004
Please Contact: Colin Durrant (617)722-1650 or
Dalié Jiménez, 617-722-1650

Board of Higher Education Unanimously Endorses
Barrios/St. Fleur In-State Tuition Bill

Fitchburg, MA -- The Massachusetts Board of Higher Education on Tuesday unanimously passed a motion to support a bill that would, under specific circumstances, allow immigrant students to receive resident tuition at public colleges and universities. The bill could actually be expected to become a budget booster for the state's cash-strapped college and university system because of a projected increase in enrolled students. The bill's Senate sponsor, Senator Jarrett T. Barrios (D-Cambridge) immediately thanked Board members for "recognizing the bill will allow hundreds of children a chance to achieve their American Dream."

If signed into law, the in-state tuition bill (H. 4570) would open up the doors of higher education -- and future job opportunity -- to hundreds of immigrant students who cannot currently afford the high cost of attending college. Specifically, H. 4570 would allow immigrant students in Massachusetts to receive in-state tuition provided that they have attended at least three years at a Massachusetts high school, have graduated or received the equivalent of a diploma.

"Every qualified child should be able to attend college and become a part of our state's economic engine," said Senator Barrios. "We can't allow someone's background to harm their opportunity to become productive citizens."

The bill's movement in the Massachusetts State House mirrors a trend on the national level to expand the higher education opportunities for immigrant students, many of whom are honor roll students that simply aren't able to afford the high cost of a college education. Similar bills have been passed in Texas, Utah, California, New York, Illinois, Washington and Oklahoma. Hundreds of immigrant students rallied in Washington D.C. Tuesday in support of the federal Dream Act, sponsored by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), which would lift a statutory restriction on state laws to provide in-state tuition to immigrant students and grant conditional immigrant status to immigrant students who have a proven academic record free of criminal behavior.

The bill has already received favorable recommendations by the Joint Committee on Education and House Committee on Homeland Security, and the House is expected to vote on the proposal soon.

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