Previous Laws Haunt Perry

Just yesterday, I found an editorial written by Joshua Green on the Austin American Statesman in which he comments on the attack Governor Rick Perry received for having passed a law back in 2001 in regards to tuition and illegal immigrants. The bipartisan law he passed granted illegal immigrants the right to pay in-state tuition so long as they had been living in Texas for at least 3 years and had plans of becoming permanent residents.

Throughout his editorial, Green tries to reach to the audience that might still not be convinced that this law is in reality quite helpful. Green claims that it's actually more useful and beneficial to the state's economy to allow these present and future generations to attend college regardless of immigration status because it already cost millions of dollars to educate these individuals from elementary to high school. To end their educational career right after they finish high school is absurd since many students are capable and deserve to get a higher education. Besides, it'd be best to have an educated population to employ since those higher paying jobs will feed the state's economy in years to come. To support this argument, Green has shown the statistics of the difference in income between those that have a degree as compared to those that don't ($23.40/hour for an individual with a bachelor's degree or higher compared to $12.29 for an individual with a high school diploma).

However, Green did say that Governor Rick Perry had possibly damaged his political career was by saying that he had approved the law because he didn’t want people to think he was “lacking a ‘heart.’” As far as extremist Republicans are concerned, social issues aren’t their concern. As the years have gone by, some (not all) Republicans have become more hostile towards illegal immigrants. This hostility has been shown particularly in the South where the most issues arise from illegal immigration. For Rick Perry to say that he has a “heart” and he wants to help illegal immigrants out in the education department is seen as preposterous to many extremist Republicans.

The way I see it, Green is completely right. I think he is a credible author since he has a reputation of having written well-informed editorials in the past for several well-known papers. I personally don’t think immigration status should deny any individual the universal right to an education. While many will disagree and say that illegals shouldn’t deserve to pay in-state tuition based on the fact that they’re illegal, I find it completely right. They deserve the right because they also participate in the state’s economy by paying their taxes such as sales tax on everything they buy just like legal residents. I also agree that the only way to help the Texas economy to recover is by creating more jobs for skilled workers, but in order to do so, Texas has to educate its citizens to be able to pay them accordingly. Lowering the tuition rate illegals have to pay helps them a lot since they can’t receive financial aid from FAFSA and have to find other means to pay for an education, and with higher tuition rates, it’d be nearly impossible for them to get an education and a degree. Without a degree or an education, they wouldn’t be as helpful to the economy. As for Rick Perry, I can’t say he has completely lost. As time goes by, the Hispanic vote will start to count more and more, and if he manages to maintain a point of view that’s true to his Republican ideals but ever-so-slightly moderate, he may be able to attract some of the Hispanic votes by reeling them in. 

Budget Cuts Cutting Into Higher Education

While looking for an article that caught my attention, I wanted to find one that would reach out to my other classmates as well. However, seeing how Rick Perry is dominating pretty much everything that encompasses Texas government, I decided I would pick something a bit different instead of following his presidential campaign.

I found an article in The Texas Tribune that had come out about a month ago, but is going to be very relevant information for college students in the years to come. So what's the topic? College education and how the bills passed by the Texas Legislature will shape most college students' futures.

The Texas Tribune began on the first of August a series of articles called "31 Days, 31 Ways" that reviewed all the changes Texas residents would begin to face the first of September due to the passing of these bills. Now we all know that tuition is already a handful unless you're one of the lucky few that don’t have to worry about how their college education will be paid. (I wish I was fortunate enough to say I was one of the lucky ones, alas, I am not.) The article said that financial aid funding would begin to diminish. That means financial aid programs ranging from TEXAS Grants to the Top 10 Percent Scholarships will experience many reductions. At least 15% of the funding that these programs received once upon a time will no longer be available to many students.

Again, as I’ve stated, while this article wasn’t released a couple of days ago, I think the information is incredibly relevant to many students such as myself. I encourage anyone pursing a college education to take a read to be prepared and know how these Texas bills will affect us all.

(I included a link to the “31 Days, 31 Ways” series page in case anyone was interested in checking out the changes that will begin to happen based on the many decisions Texan lawmakers have made.)