Editor’s note: The source Rene Juarez is using a pseudonym for this article in order to protect his privacy.
When Rene Juarez (pseudonym) graduated from his Oregon high school he was expecting to go to college, although his family had little money.
Before applying to the University, Juarez applied for scholarships: The 18-year-old had a 3.6 grade point average and he thought he had no reason to believe that anything was wrong. At first, he was right. He received notice that he had been awarded $70,000.
Then he was forced to give it all up.
The University had examined his records and found was that Juarez’s parents were not citizens. Despite having applied for permanent residency at age 12, Juarez had no legal status as a state resident. He was not sure what had transpired.
“I knew that I really wanted to go but it was really discouraging,” he said. “I had to put my life on hold because I couldn’t afford to go to school.”
Juarez’s experience is not unique: Students at public universities all over the country are forced to pay out-of-state tuition in their home states because of their parents’ immigrant status.
If a high school student’s parents are not documented by the government and have no tax information, that student has no information to submit on college financial aid applications. As a result, these students who have lived in and attended high school in Oregon are left unable to pursue a college degree simply because they cannot afford it.
Oregon is the only state on the West Coast that has no legislation to deal with the oversight, and student activists are pushing lawmakers to become the 11th state to provide “tuition equity.” Courtney Sproule, Communications Director for the Oregon Student Association, said tuition equity legislation would open doors to access to in-state tuition to all qualifying Oregon high school graduates. “This legislation is crucial to our state’s future right now because we need to be addressing the needs of an increasingly diverse population,” she said.
On Feb. 15, a tuition equity bill was introduced into the Oregon legislature. The House killed a similar piece of legislation in 2003, but the Oregon Students of Color Coalition, the statewide student organization that lobbied for the bill, has tried to learn from its mistakes.
“We’re organizing more around this issue now and we’re more aware of the concerns that legislators have,” said OSCC Board Chair Oscar Guerra.
The bill would allow Oregon high school graduates with undocumented parents to attend Oregon public universities at the in-state tuition rates under the following circumstances: The student attends an Oregon high school for at least three years, graduates from an Oregon high school, is accepted to an Oregon public university, and shows progress toward residency.
“There’s always a misconception that comes of tuition equity and the discussion around tuition equity,” said Guerra. “A lot of people believe that tuition equity is an issue of immigration. Tuition equity is an issue about access to higher education.”
Juarez spent four years working illegally and waiting to resolve his resident status. In 2001 he was awarded his certificate of residency, and at age 22, he could finally enroll as a freshman at the University.
“I’m definitely an anomaly in being able to make it after having been out of school for four years,” he said. “Most students who do that never come back because they’re already more established in their jobs and creating their life, and it’s a lot harder for them to come back to get a college education.”
Now, the 27-year-old senior is preparing to graduate in June with a 3.91 GPA. The road to a degree was not necessarily an easy one.
“As an undergrad, and being older, it’s already difficult even if you don’t have to deal with the tuition equity,” Juarez said. “There’s all that stigma and this really weird energy around being an older student. But if you’re having to deal with both of these things then it’s definitely hard. Not harder, but hard in a different way.”
While attending the University, Juarez has worked extensively with OSA and OSCC, in addition to other community organizations with the goal of promoting tuition equity awareness.
“I think that if Oregonians knew that some Oregonians are basically being denied, or have huge barriers to education, then they’d be working to eliminate those barriers because it would basically be improving the state,” he said. ” I think that some people are approaching it in a way that works towards breaking down these barriers. But there’s also some people in the state who claim it as an issue of immigration or a drain on the state.”
Juarez said that’s not the case. The increased funding of dollars through the state system, as well as higher probability that college graduates will stay in Oregon would be a benefit, he said.
“And it would help students have access to education, which is the most important part to this,” he said. “I think that more people are seeing it as something that’s really important for Oregon. Oregon’s future, essentially.”
Guerra said that tuition equity is a necessity because many highly qualified Oregon students are not able to continue their education after high school, no matter how successful they may be.
According to the OSCC, which works in conjunction with the OSA, tuition equity would benefit the state of Oregon because many smart, talented students who are priced out of college would be able to attend Oregon schools and increase the diversity within those universities and in Oregon overall.
Juarez noted that college graduates contribute more in taxes and use fewer state services, and ultimately make a positive difference for the state.
“(Legislators) are starting to realize that if we educate Oregonians they will be stronger and it will be a stronger state,” he said.
Sproule said that Oregon needs to create a workforce that can fill the kinds of jobs being created. According to the OSCC, 87 percent of all new jobs in Oregon will require a college degree by 2010.
“Really what this is talking about is equity of opportunity for people who are going to work really hard to succeed,” Sproule said.
A multi-ethnic issue
Although much of the debate focuses on the Latino population, tuition equity affects a wide range of ethnicities, Juarez said.
Both Guerra and OSCC field organizer and University graduate Brenda Sifuentez graduated from high school alongside students with undocumented parents. These students had to forego college because they couldn’t afford the out-of-state tuition rates.
“I graduated with all these bright students who weren’t able to go on,” Sifuentez said, “but because of my status I was able to go on.”
Similarly, Guerra had an Irish friend in high school who was accepted to both the University of Oregon and Oregon State University. He couldn’t attend either school because his family could not support him financially.
Juarez said he knows people who don’t even consider attending college because the prospect is hopeless.
“I think that’s the saddest thing,” he said, “that people don’t consider it a possibility because they just can’t go. It’s too expensive.”
For the 2006-07 school year, 12 credit hours at the University costs an Oregon resident $1,783. A non-resident pays $5,695. The more credits the student takes, the larger the difference.
Portland State University senior Monique Petersen has personal experience with tuition equity.
Petersen’s older brother Lindsay was born in South Africa. Shortly thereafter, he and his parents moved to the United States, where she was born 22 years ago. Younger siblings soon followed.
Petersen’s parents allowed their son to retain his South African citizenship when he was born because they planned on living there, but when his father won scholarships to earn his Ph.D. in New York, the parents decided to move to America and live
on visas. They never went back; her father recently got his green card and her mother’s is on the way.
“Since all their kids were raised here, it’s all we knew,” said Petersen. “They didn’t want to uproot us and take us to a place we didn’t know. The opportunities are much greater out here.”
Petersen’s family moved from New York to Gaston, Oregon in 1997. She and her siblings attended high school in the state, and Lindsay graduated from Century High School in Hillsboro.
Because his parents couldn’t afford to send him to an Oregon public university at the cost of out-of-state tuition and he was not eligible to receive financial aid, Lindsay was forced to go back to South Africa three years ago to study.
“He wants to start his own business,” Petersen said. “He loves Portland. He had planned on coming here with me, and my parents just couldn’t handle the cost.”
Petersen said the transition has been rough on her family. She said her parents and brother have never lived here illegally, and they’ve been paying taxes their entire lives.
“It just doesn’t make sense that students who live in Oregon and have an investment in the Oregon community shouldn’t have a chance to get an education here and contribute to our society,” said Petersen. “It’s an issue of just where (students) are taken when they’re young.”
Yet Petersen has faith in Oregon. She has visited a number of other states, and said Oregon is one of the most education-conscious.
“The kind of state that we are,” she said, “it doesn’t seem like Oregonians would want the students to not be able to go to college because of circumstances beyond their control.”
Months of lobbying at the Capitol have provided Petersen with a close-up view of the tuition equity debate in Oregon. She knows that legislators are aware of the issue, she just hopes that they are educating their constituents on the issue of tuition equity. She remains hopeful that the Oregon legislation will pass.
“It’s the right step for Oregon,” she said.
Juarez said that despite the obvious difficulty of getting an education, the entire experience has affected him positively, and helped him grasp the importance of education.
“I think that previously, when I first graduated, I didn’t really think about these issues because I was going to school, I was getting my education, and I just saw it as a progression. You know, after high school you should go to college.”
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