DREAMing of a Better Tomorrow: In-State Tuition for Undocumented Immigrants

In contrast to the drumbeat of anti-immigrant attacks in past legislative sessions, this year has seen states across the country proposing in-state college tuition rates for undocumented students, a move mirrored by Congress' proposed DREAM Act, which was re-introduced at the federal level on March 25th.  

A recent push in Oregon with HB 2939 for in-state tuition received a favorable editorial from the state's largest paper and had an overflow crowd at Monday's hearing. Oregon's legislation is typical of such bills in requiring a three year residency in the state with plans to become a lawful resident or citizen to qualify for the program. The Governors of New Jersey, Maryland, and Colorado have publicly stated their willingness to sign legislation allowing in-state tuition for undocumented students. However, sessions ended in Maryland and Colorado without passage of their in-state tuition bills although Colorado's in-state tuition bill, SB 170, passed the House and a Senate committee, coming just short of winning a floor vote.  Bills supporting in-state tuition have been introduced in Rhode Island, Missouri, and Connecticut as well.  Arkansas considered a bill, but it failed in the Senate, although the vote was closer than expected.

Failure of Anti-Immigrant Attacks on Current Laws: Currently ten states allow undocumented immigrants to enroll in state colleges and universities under the cheaper in-state tuition rate: California, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and Washington.  Attempts by anti-immigrant legislators to repeal those laws failed in both Utah and Nebraska. Despite past attacks, Kansas didn't even bring up a repeal bill this session. In North Carolina, which blocked undocumented students from enrolling at community colleges after pressure from the state Attorney General, the legislature is now reconsidering their options as a new study found that allowing undocumented students to enroll at out-of-state levels would generate needed revenues for the state.

Most States Prefer Integrating New Immigrants: As PSN highlighted in a report last year, a majority of undocumented immigrants now live in states where in-state tuition is available, highlighting the fact that states with the longest experience with immigrant populations recognize the advantage of integrating immigrants into the economy rather than indulging in punitive policies.  

Most state leaders have in the end seen it as a question of whether or not states want to have a diverse, educated and highly-skilled workforce that can attract businesses for the long-term, something even many conservatives agree with: “Opening educational opportunity for more of our high school graduates means our state will have a more developed work force down the road, and will be able to attract more high-growth industries," said Dick Monfort, a prominent Republican businessman and chairman of the University of Northern Colorado Board of Trustees who supports the Colorado tuition equity bill.

Support for Single-Payer Health Coverage Widens

State legislatures and city councils across the country are raising the bar for how ambitious national health care reform should be, with many coming out in favor of single-payer health coverage reform.  The Maine House and Senate became the latest state chambers to pass a resolution calling on President Obama and the Congress to create a "national, universal, single-payer nonprofit health care plan."  As reported by Unions for Single Payer Health Care, at least 41 cities and states have endorsed single-payer reform, including the New Hampshire House, New York State Assembly, Kentucky House, Indianapolis City Council, Detroit City Council, Chicago City Council, and the Alachua County Board of Commissioners in Gainesville, Florida.

Yet, support for single-payer reform goes beyond resolutions.  State legislation to create single-payer like systems has moved in several states this year.

• In Colorado, HB 1273, the "Colorado Guaranteed Health Care Act", would create an authority to study how best to establish a health care system that is the "administrator and payer for health care services" and "provides comprehensive medical benefits" to Coloradans.  The bill includes declarative language affirming the eminent importance of the patient-doctor relationship and that "[h]ealth care services should be provided to an individual with limited and efficient outside intervention and maximum transparency."  The bill has gained initial approval in the House but awaits final consideration by the chamber, likely in July.  
• In Maine, in addition to passage of the single-payer resolution, LD 1365 would create a state single-payer health care system.  The bill had a public hearing on Monday in which providers joined patients to speak in favor of  the legislation.  
• At least 8 states are considering single-payer legislation including California, Illinois, Missouri, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Washington state.

This activity comes as President Obama reaffirmed his commitment to sweeping health care reform this year in a major domestic policy speech on Tuesday.  President Obama identified substantive health care reform - ensuring access to quality health care for all Americans and reducing the cost of health care that is taxing US businesses and families - as one of the "five pillars" of a robust and sustainable economic recovery.

Reforming Sex Education to Prevent Sexually-Transmitted Diseases

Even as Planned Parenthood, MTV and the Kaiser Family Foundation team up in a campaign to prevent sexually transmitted diseases (STD), state legislatures are acting to ensure students' access to comprehensive sex education and are rejecting federal funding for failed abstinence-only programs.  Half of all sexually active people will have an STD by the age of 25 with 19 million new STD cases occurring each year.  These statistics highlight the need for improving youth sex education. 

While the previous Administration pursued a failed abstinence-only policy over the last 8 years, 25 states rejected federal funding for abstinence-only sex education and funded comprehensive sex education.  A look at 2009 legislation shows that states continue to view comprehensive sex education as a priority.  As Planned Parenthood reported in an e-mail, so far in 2009, 22 states (AZ, FL. HI, IL, IN, KS, KY, MA, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, NY, OH, OK, OR, RI, TX, UT, VA, and WA) have introduced 53 proactive sex education measures designed to expand students’ access to comprehensive sex education, including:

• Requiring Medical Accuracy:  Many of these states are requiring that if sex education is being taught then it must be comprehensive and medically accurate such as HI SB 777. 
• Options for Teaching Healthy Living: Others, like NC HB 88 would allow all parents the option of having life-saving information on preventing unintended pregnancy and STD's taught to their teen through the healthy living curriculum.
• Sex Education Grant Programs: Others such as NY HB1806 would establish an age-appropriate sex education grant program within their state health departments to be appropriated to school districts, school-based health centers, and community-based organizations to assist them in conducting a thorough and comprehensive education program aimed at preventing unintended pregnancies and occurrences of sexually transmitted diseases among youth. 

"Get Yourself Tested", a nationwide campaign using youth-oriented entertainment and media to raise awareness of the prevalence of STD's, the importance and ease of getting tested and to encourage parents to talk to their children about sexually transmitted infections.

Potential Federal Funding for State Programs:  The prevalence of STD's has resulted in federal legislation, the Responsible Education About Life Act, or REAL Act  (S. 611), which would fund "comprehensive, medically accurate, age-appropriate sex education" in America's schools.  As Planned Parenthood pointed out in a press release praising the REAL Act, there is currently no federal funding stream dedicated to supporting comprehensive sex education.  Conversely, the Bush Administration funneled $1.5 billion over the past 8 years to abstinence-only sex education programs despite numerous scientific studies showing that such programs do not prevent sexual activity and leave America's youth woefully uneducated about how to protect their sexual health.  

Public Support for comprehensive sex ed is strong.  A poll commissioned by the National Women's Law Center and Planned Parenthood found that 76 percent of voters support comprehensive sex education in public schools.