Sunday, August 03, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

EDITORIAL: Subsidizing lawbreakers?

Why should taxpayers underwrite college tuition for illegal aliens?

Roughly two months ago, state Treasurer Brian Krolicki, who oversees the Millennium Scholarship program for Nevada high school graduates, announced that qualifying students would be asked whether they were U.S. citizens or legal immigrants before they received financial aid. The treasurer expressed concerns about the propriety of providing a taxpayer subsidy -- one that can be worth as much as $10,000 -- to teenagers who might otherwise be candidates for deportation. This week, Mr. Krolicki said the qualifying letters will go out ... but those questions will be excluded.

That's unfortunate, because the treasurer's initial instincts were sound. The immigration and residency status of Nevada teenagers should affect whether those students qualify for tuition subsidies.

On Wednesday, Mr. Krolicki defended his decision by saying the federal law here was uncertain. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that illegal immigrants cannot be denied a "public" education; but at what point does the entitlement end? Is it upon reaching age 16, when Nevada no longer requires a youngster to attend school? Is it when a student graduates high school? Or does it force taxpayers to underwrite an illegal student's college education?

UNLV does not require proof of either citizenship or legal immigration status before allowing illegal aliens to be admitted at in-state tuition rates ... a policy that should be revisited by the university system regents, and soon.

But so long as illegal immigrants are allowed to pay in-state tuition to a public college, must the state continue to issue Millennium Scholarships to students who, by remaining in this country, are breaking the law?

Mr. Krolicki had asked Attorney General Brian Sandoval to settle the matter. But the attorney general failed to offer advice before the qualifying letters had to be mailed, so the question was dropped from the letters.

The treasurer should have stuck to his guns. A move to prevent anyone other than legal Nevada residents from receiving the scholarships is a fiscally prudent idea that would keep the program's costs under control, particularly if payments from the tobacco settlement -- the funding source for the scholarship program -- are imperiled.

Nevada requires U.S. citizens and legal immigrants who live out of state to pay more than Silver State residents to attend its public universities. Why should illegal immigrants who happen to hold diplomas from local high schools get a sweeter deal?