Religious leaders add boost to in-state tuition bill drive

Scott T. Daugherty

The effort to bring in-state tuition to the children of undocumented immigrants gained momentum this week as religious leaders and Tom Reilly, Massachusetts Attorney General, voiced their support for the In-State Tuition Bill.

The bill, co-sponsored by state Rep. Marie St. Fleur, aims to provide access to in-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities provided that the student has attended at least three years in a Massachusetts high school and has graduated or received the equivalent of a diploma.

The support of religious leaders from the Muslim, Jewish and Christian faiths, including the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization — the state’s largest interfaith organization — was focused on the moral and economic advantages to having these students become college educated.

“If they can’t go to college what are they going to do? They are more likely to turn to drugs, they are more likely to turn to gangs and they’re more likely to turn to crime,” said the Rev. Hurmon E. Hamilton. Hamilton is the senior pastor of the Roxbury Presbyterian Church and CEO of RPC Social Impact Center.

“These young people are in our churches and they’re our children,” Hamilton told the Banner. “They’re not just our children because we’re African Americans. I argue that they’re our children as a nation, as a state. Whether they were born here or not. Not because they’ve taken some pledge but because they’ve been nurtured by our values, they’ve been cultivated by our American dream.”

According to the Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy coalition, approximately 400 high achieving students — who have lived in Massachusetts for most of their lives — are unable to afford the out-of-state tuition they must now pay to attend public universities.

The religious leaders present at Tuesday’s State House press conference included Sister Lena Deevy, executive director of the Irish Immigration Center; Rabbi Barbara Penzer, president of the Mass Board of Rabbis; and Hamza Pelletier, representative of the Islamic Society.

Bills similar to the In-State Tuition Bill have passed in nine states including Oklahoma, Utah and Texas. At least three of those states had Republican governors who signed the bills into law. Here in Massachusetts, however, Governor Romney vetoed a similar bill that was in the 2004 budget.

Some of those opposed to the measure have resorted to using fear. According to published reports, state Rep. Marie Parente (D-Milford) questioned whether the undocumented students and their parents were coming to the state “…to do us good or harm?”

St. Fleur, state Rep. Byron Rushing and other representatives of Boston’s African American community are pushing hard to get the bill passed explained Ali Noorani, executive director of MIRA.

“Everybody is working really hard on this,” Noorani said. “The game of inside baseball has begun and people are putting their necks out there. Rep. St. Fleur is putting her neck out there, investing a lot of time and capital really doing everything she can to make this bill move forward.”

Hamilton said educating the children of undocumented immigrants is in the best interest of all the state’s residents.

“I think that the best use of our resources is to get these kids into college,” he said. “Take care of our own by taking care of these children. You get these kids to become lawyers and doctors and engineers. You know what they will do when the graduate? They’ll pay taxes and those taxes will go back into our community.”

The In-State Tuition Bill does not provide financial aid, scholarships or loans according to a MIRA statement. Nor would it lead to the displacement of other students as these students already are being accepted by the universities and colleges.