Editorial
Hone tuition law for intended students

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The Legislature must tighten up a new law that embraces the promise of young people who, through no fault of their own, were brought to this country by parents skirting immigration law.

State Rep. Phyllis Gutierrez Kenney, D-Seattle, who worked hard for the bill, says she'll now work to exclude unintended beneficiaries — international students on temporary visas who do not face the same dire financial challenges.

Last year, Washington state lawmakers and the governor decided to lower the financial barrier to higher education for some young state residents, many of them children of migrant farmworkers, by letting them pay in-state resident tuition.

The difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition — from about $5,000 a year at a community college to $11,000 at the University of Washington — for these mostly poor young people means the difference between going to college or working in the fields.

The case for helping children of Washington's harvest was compelling. The state already makes a significant investment in them, providing education from kindergarten through 12th grade, no questions asked.

And when some of these kids, against the odds, not only learned English but excelled enough to be admitted to college, it made no sense to push a bright future out of their financial reach.

But, as written, the law extends in-state tuition also to some international students with temporary visas. Some came here as exchange students, while others are children of well-paid employees of large companies who have employment visas — in other words, not those students the law was intended to help.

About half of the 86 students who qualified for the program and were admitted to four-year universities this fall are unintended beneficiaries, as are about 13 percent of the 287 at community colleges.

The law was intended to give a hand up to promising young people whose options have been limited due to their parents' decisions and their residency status.