AB 1758 would save $114 million per year by ending tuition subsidies for illegal immigrants while granting National Guard members free tuition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 11, 2008
BILL REPEALS $117 MILLION ANNUAL ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT TUITION BENEFIT WHILE PROVIDING FREE COLLEGE FOR CALIFORNIA NATIONAL GUARD MEMBERS
California Significantly Lags Nation in Benefits Provided To National Guard
Irvine, Calif. – In an effort to bolster membership and retention in the California National Guard, Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (R-Irvine) is proposing an education assistance program that would provide members of the Guard free tuition at state colleges and universities. Assembly Bill 1758: the California National Guard Tuition Assistance Bill was submitted to the Assembly this week.
Despite being the most called upon, California ranks last in the nation in education assistance for National Guard members. California is also the only state that does not provide free tuition to its Guard. In recent years, the Guard has been faced with retention and recruitment declines that experts blame on California’s lack of available benefits.
“California is way behind the ball on this issue,” said Assemblyman DeVore. “Whether it is being called up to serve in Iraq, Afghanistan, or called to protect citizens from raging wildfires, California consistently depends on its citizen soldiers for national security and community assistance.”
This legislation would also repeal AB 540 (Firebaugh), a law passed in 2001 that allowed undocumented immigrant students an exemption from nonresident tuition fees. Texas granted illegal immigrants in-state tuition benefits the same year, seeing a 433 percent increase in illegal immigrants using the college subsidy, going from 1,500 students in 2001 to 8,000 in 2004. This cost the Texans millions of tax dollars.
In comparison, California likely has more than double the number of illegal immigrants enrolled in state colleges and universities than Texas. According to a recent Legislative Analysis Office report, there are up to 20,000 immigrant students in California receiving waivers from the state for tuition, both legal and illegal. The report said that about 90 percent of the immigrant students in California’s Community College system alone are undocumented. This means that there could be as many as 18,000 illegal immigrants enrolled in California State University, University of California and community colleges receiving heavily subsidized in-state tuition rates at the cost to the taxpayer of about $117 million per year.
Since the cost to provide free college tuition for California’s Guard members would be no more than $3 million per year, AB 1758 has the potential to save taxpayers up to $114 million per year – a substantial sum of money in a state with a $14.5 billion deficit.
“We have got to reverse the trend in California that rewards illegal immigrants and ignores our own citizen’s needs,” said Assemblyman DeVore. “Repealing taxpayer funded benefits to illegal immigrants frees up millions of dollars to provide much needed benefits to our men and women in uniform, and at the same reduces the size of government.”
AB 1758 will first be heard in the Assembly Higher Education Committee.
Assemblyman Chuck DeVore represents the 70th Assembly District in Orange County. He is an Assembly Republican Whip and is Vice Chairman of the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee. He is also a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the California National Guard. The Assemblyman’s web site can be found at www.assembly.ca.gov.
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March 13th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Three comments:
1. Why haven’t you ask KFI Radio for an interview to discuss this bill? I couldn’t believe that you didn’t mention it during your last call with John and Ken. (I’ve mentioned this bill twice to KFI and they seem to have done absoultely nothing to support you.)
2. Why don’t you extend these benefits to Californians who are willing to serve as reserve officers with any police force in the state? In Los Angeles, for example, there is an extremely dangerous short-fall of reserve police officers which this bill could reduce quickly. In terms of readiness for any national emergency, I can’t see how the Guard is more important than our reserve police officers.
3. Why don’t you put forward legislation to require our state universities to give special priority to admit members of the Guard into any undergraduate or graduate program as long as their test scores fall within the top 90 percent of all applicants?
If AB 1758 passes, you can be certain that many of our state universities - especially, Berkeley — will deliberately avoid admitting National Guard or Air Guard students so they don’t lose any tuition income from these volunteers. Before you introduced this legislation, our best state universities had little interest in the military. And if it passes, these educators — and I use that term quite loosely — will have solid financial reasons to ignore potential students in the Guard.
March 15th, 2008 at 11:19 am
Thanks for your comments, Brian. We have mentioned this to KFI. I’ve been on other radio shows about this, and have been on John and Ken several times — just not yet about this issue — they’re a tough show to get onto.
As for your idea: “Why don’t you extend these benefits to Californians who are willing to serve as reserve officers with any police force in the state?” I’ll look into that. Thanks. Similarly with your other ideas. We’ll do what we can to move the issue forward.
Thanks again.
All the best,
Chuck DeVore
State Assemblyman, 70th District
http://www.ChuckDeVore.com
March 18th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Excellent Legislation. Our entire club is 100 % behind this bill. Keep us informed. Thanx, Nancy When are you able to come speak to us again? We would love to have you in May or June. Please advise.