Eye Resist Press Conference For Colorado Asset
Immigrant children are optimistic Colorado Asset SB 126 granting in-state tuition to qualified undocumented youths will pass this year. Currently, undocumented freshman must pay out-of-state tuition rates even if they lived in Colorado for years. The cost of going to college dissuades many youths from pursuing higher education.
Brittany Hernandez addresses a large crowd gathered in freezing conditions at CU Boulder to hear details about granting in-state tuition to undocumented youths.
The Colorado Advancing Students for a Stronger Economy Tomorrow (ASSET) bill is intended to add fairness to the tuition rates in the state. A child immigrant brought to Colorado as young as 1 year of age does not qualify for in-state tuition in colleges outside of Colorado. If he can’t qualify for in-state tuition in Colorado, the student, usually from a poor family, may not be able to go to college at all. Hence, the system gives an unfair advantage to some children and poses an impossible barrier to youth raised in poverty.
Eye Resist, a student-led organization, helped organize a press conference on the University of Colorado at Boulder campus today to highlight the benefits of the Colorado Asset bill. Brittany Hernandez from Eye Resist says Colorado Asset will not cost the state anything. She says immigrant youth make a positive contribution to the state’s economy and can help in the cost of operating the state’s colleges. If the bill passes, an estimated $1.75 million to $4 plus million dollars would be paid by immigrant youth to community colleges and universities the first year, according to State Bill Colorado.
“Many of our brightest, smartest, most talented, passionate students are leaving our state to go to a state where they are allowed to pay in-state tuition.” Hernandez said in an exclusive interview with Immigrants2bfree.
“We are losing our brightest students.” Hernandez noted.
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