Missouri bill would ban in-state tuition for some students

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri legislators debated a measure Tuesday that would ban public colleges and universities from offering in-state tuition to students living in the U.S. illegally.

Schools in the state now risk losing state funding if they offer students with “an unlawful immigration status" anything less than the tuition rate charged to international students. That's because of restrictions that lawmakers have placed on state funding in recent years through the budget process.

Suburban St. Louis Republican Sen. Bob Onder's bill would enshrine that budget policy in law.

“It’s really just a question of, in this world of scarce resources, who do we want to subsidize coming to our state for tuition?” Onder told a Senate committee Tuesday.

He said because residents from other states don't qualify for in-state tuition, “it doesn't make sense to me to encourage the unlawful breaking of our immigration laws in this way.”

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 17 states have adopted laws allowing in-state tuition for students living in the U.S. illegally. At least three — Arizona, Georgia and Indiana, enacted laws to ban the practice. Alabama and South Carolina prohibit those students from attending public colleges and universities.

Democratic Sen. Lauren Arthur, who worked as a Kansas City teacher before joining the Legislature, said she previously taught students brought to the U.S. illegally as children who call Missouri home.

She questioned the public benefit of discouraging those students from staying in the state amid a labor shortage.

“My concern is that we are educating undocumented students K-12, they are interested in staying in Missouri, and what essentially we’re doing is making cost-prohibitive to remain in...