That's the message South Carolina is sending to undocumented students now that it's become the first state in the nation to bar illegal immigrants from attending its public colleges and universities. What a startling disconnect between that state's k-12 system--which, because of a 1982 Supreme Court decision, must educate all students who show up in its classes--and its higher education system. Concern about America's out-of-control borders is not ill-founded, of course, but it's difficult to envision a more punitive and ineffective solution to the problem than the one South Carolina has embraced. Nor one more damaging to the long-term prospects of illegal immigrants becoming useful, productive, law-abiding, and tax-paying residents. Public policy should encourage all children to fulfill their potential, not force those whose parents broke the law to hide in the shadows of our society. On this point, California and the nine other states that provide in-state tuition to all students graduating from their public high schools have it right. And South Carolina has it so very, very wrong.
"Illegal immigrants face threat of no college," by Mary Beth Marklein, USA Today, July 7, 2008
"Undocumented students have a degree of anxiety," by Gale Holland, Los Angeles Times, July 8, 2009