May 21, 2001, 10:34PM Undocumented students may get big tuition break Houston Chronicle AUSTIN -- The Texas Senate on Monday unanimously passed a bill that would save the state's undocumented students thousands of dollars a year by making them eligible for residential college tuition rates. Advocates said the bill would allow some of the best and brightest students to afford college. "This will ensure the future economic viability of our state by putting our priorities in the right place -- in the intellectual development of our children," said Rep. Rick Noriega, D-Houston, who authored the bill. The measure, already passed by the House, comes nearly three years after grass-roots activists persuaded the Dallas County Community College District to allow undocumented students who had attended a local high school to pay resident rates. Other community college districts, including the Houston Community College System, have since followed suit. The bill would extend access to lower tuition to all the state's public colleges. Although the Dallas County district does not keep records, its chancellor, J. William Wenrich, believes perhaps 500 of its 50,000 students are undocumented and paying lower tuition rates. The number is growing as word-of-mouth about the program spreads, he said. The students are counted as residents for accounting purposes, and the state did not subsidize the district for the lost tuition, Wenrich said. "If you don't invest money in young people," he said, "you're going to put money into social services later on." Now the state would be picking up the cost of lost tuition, and legislators, too, appear to believe it would be money well spent. "This is an investment in human development that will result in economic development," said Sen. Carlos Truan, D-Corpus Christi. Better-educated students attract better jobs, pay more taxes and contribute more to society, Truan and other senators said. Students who attended Texas high schools for three years and then graduated would qualify for residential tuition rates regardless of their citizenship status. As many as 2,500 could take advantage of the proposed law this fall semester, according to the Legislative Budget Board. By 2005, the measure is expected to cost about $17 million a year. Noriega also attributed the bill's success to an active campaign by students, their teachers and Texas' business community. One of those teachers, David Johnston of Lee High School in southwest Houston, was ecstatic. "This opens the door to a lot of schools for a lot of kids," he said. The difference between resident and non-resident tuition rates is considerable. At the University of Houston-Downtown, residents pay $38 per semester credit hour, nonresident students $254. In-state tuition at UT-Austin costs about $1,800 per semester this academic year, nonresident tuition about $5,000. Johnston said students helped the most will be those in rural areas, where there are no community colleges or the local college has not followed the lead of schools such as the Dallas County district. One amendment added Monday extends the time from one year to three years that a student has to attend a Texas high school to be eligible for resident tuition. That change will affect relatively few students, Johnston said. Out of 11 students in one of his English-as-a-second-language classes, Johnston said, all but one had been in a Texas high school for three or more years. The House must concur with two Senate amendments, but Noriega said they are acceptable. A spokesman said Gov. Rick Perry has not yet reviewed the bill. However, Perry has said he supports making it easier for more students to attend college in Texas.
