First a caveat – I go through these bills pretty quickly and I’m painfully aware that I’m not familiar with the context in so many of these issues and probably just get things wrong more often than I’d care to admit. Particularly on my mind at the moment is the possibility that things which seem reasonable on the face of a given bill might be pernicious when compared to actual practice. Or a bill that seems objectionable might be an improvement over the status quo.
In any event, Senator Doriot has introduced SB 135 concerning resident tuition. It appears that it is allowing resident tuition for certain individuals who are not necessarily present in the state or the country legally. Such eligible individuals would be those who attended high school in Indiana for at least four years, graduated from an Indiana high school, files an affidavit certifying that the individual is attempting to obtain legal immigration status, and certifies that the individual “is not applying for any state or local public benefit or federal public benefit” other than the resident tuition benefit.
I’m not sure I care for the last bit. I know it’s an effort to fend off concerns that feckless alien hordes are living parasitically off of good, hardworking Americans. But: a) I think the data show that immigrants, lawful and otherwise, tend to give our communities more than they take; and b) I suspect that applicants who qualify under this bill are mostly going to be younger people whose use of and/or need for public benefits are a function of their parents circumstances; and the children should not be punished for the sins of their parents.
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