Others using tuition break meant for immigrants

By Lornet Turnbull
Seattle Times staff reporter

JAMES BRANAMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMES Students like Martha Arellano, a freshman at Seattle Central Community College, were the intended beneficiaries of the in-state tuition break.

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most read articles Most e-mailed articles

The difference could be up to $11,000 a student a year on a campus such as the University of Washington, where the largest number of international students in the state are paying the in-state rate this fall.

"The bill was written with very broad parameters," said Paul Svaren, international-student-enrollment manager at Washington State University in Pullman.

"It was intended for children who came to this country with their parents and in some cases have lived here longer than they've lived in their home country.

"But it also provides an unusual opportunity for students it was not originally intended for. They [lawmakers] should have tightened it [the bill] up."

Under the measure, passed by the Legislature last year, a qualifying student must have lived in Washington continuously for three years before receiving a high-school diploma or GED and must have remained in the state since receiving it.

The bill was meant to help children of migrant workers and other immigrants who came to this country with their parents and are neither legal permanent residents nor U.S. citizens.

It requires them to complete an affidavit stating they will apply to become permanent U.S. residents as soon as they are eligible.

When Gov. Gary Locke signed the bill, The Associated Press reported that he said it was a "logical extension" of state support for education and "helps all Washington residents and gives them an equal chance at quality higher education. It does not lower standards or confer special privileges."

College is often out of reach for the students — many of them Latino — the law aims to help. Without it, they would face higher out-of-state tuition and sometimes international-student rates, which are substantially higher than the out-of-state rate.

Program participants have no access to federal financial aid. And the new law doesn't change that.

This fall, 291 students enrolled in state-supported colleges and universities and are paying in-state tuition under the program, according to a report the schools provided the Legislature.

But as passed by lawmakers, the measure also left a wide loophole for a unique class of international students here on nonimmigrant visas who also graduated from Washington high schools.

They generally entered this country as exchange students or children of employment-visa holders whose parents work for large regional employers, such as Microsoft.

They have been admitted to colleges and universities across the state under any number of temporary visas issued for such purposes as business visits, education and religious work.

Seldom are they in desperate financial need, many point out.

"It seems the largest group here [at the UW] from other countries are enrolled in private high schools, often Christian schools," said Tim Washburn, assistant vice president for enrollment services at the UW.

Seventy-five percent of the 44 program enrollees at the UW were visa holders.

A few other states also offer in-state college-tuition rates to illegal immigrants, but Washburn pointed out that many of those states, such as California, exclude visa holders.

That's because schools covet international students, not only because of the cultural advantage they bring to college campuses but also because of the additional revenue they can help generate because of the higher tuition.

"It's possible to list all the visa types that exist so as to exclude [visa students] from the program," he said. "They didn't do that here. There are some who believe that families that are working here deserve that benefit as well."

Under the program this fall, the UW enrolled only nine illegal-immigrants students and Washburn said he's not surprised.

"The real impact, I think, will be in the future," he said. "What this measure does is it affects the way students think of education possibilities. Students who are beginning the eighth and ninth grades now know it's possible for them. They begin now taking all the right preparatory courses."

Community colleges, meanwhile, are seeing larger numbers of illegal immigrants this fall because of those schools' accessibility and lower costs.

Administrators say not only are more students familiar with the program, now in its second year, but schools are aggressively marketing and promoting it.

Columbia Basin College in Pasco had the highest number of program new enrollees, 59, of any institution statewide; all were children of illegal immigrants. "We believe that without this program, we wouldn't be getting these students," said Frank Murray, director of communications at Columbia Basin. "We had great difficulty before in recruiting these students."

Murray said the college began targeting Latino students four years ago so the campus could more closely reflect the community. Since then, Latino student enrollment has jumped from 15 percent of total enrollment to 25 percent.

Mike Reilly, interim vice president for enrollment service at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, said more students completed the affidavit seeking residency status than the 20 who enrolled.

"We're still not enrolling as many as we would like," he said.

Bruce Botka, spokesman for the state Higher Education Coordinating Board, said the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition "can be pretty steep," ranging from $8,000 and $11,000 a year at the four-year institutions to an average of $5,000 a year at community colleges.

If not for the residency program, students such as Martha Arellano, 20, may not have considered college.

The freshman civil-engineering major at Seattle Central Community College said she learned of the benefit from a Latino outreach effort at the school. After she applied, she also secured a scholarship that covers tuition.

"My family wouldn't have been able to afford college otherwise," she said.

The oldest of three children, she came to Washington from Mexico with her family three years ago. "I dream of getting a degree from the UW," she said.

"So many of my friends don't even think about college," the Auburn resident added. "They graduate from high school and get jobs in restaurants, or cleaning or housekeeping."

They are also afraid of enrolling in school, she said, because "they think immigration will come to get them."

College administrators know that fear is one obstacle in getting students to participate in the program.

They try to reassure them that their information is confidential and that neither the school nor the Legislature is tracking these students in any way.

"I want to be a mirror for other Hispanics," Arellano said. "I want to prove to people that we can make it."

Lornet Turnbull: 206-464-2420 or lturnbull@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

E-mail this article

Print this article

Search archive

More education headlines...