From our friends on the left…
Here are three predictable counter-narratives (read: lies) to the shite-storm the Civitas Institute managed to stir up:
1. People who think that illegal immigrants should not receive publicly subsidized higher education are hateful, racist, nativist xenophobes.
(False. One can agree that the legal immigration system should be fixed and streamlined, but breaking the law at the periphery is not the way to fix it. That is neither xenophobia nor racism, but respect for the rule of law. Personally, I say "come one, come all" — but legally.)
2. Eighteen-year-olds in community colleges are "the children."
(False. Eighteen-year-olds are adult free agents. Did I even need to write this?)
3. Community colleges are "profiting" from allowing illegal immigrant attendees to pay out-of-state tuition.
(False: If even 70 percent of the TOTAL cost (capital expenditures and all) of community college system was covered by tuition, we might say that some costs are being offset. The real number is around 12 percent. The system is subsidized by TAXPAYING CITIZENS by more than 85 percent! That’s about as close to profit as the Soviet shoe factory.)
Ultimately, the lefties are fighting the wrong battle here. Let’s reform the law — not break it. And remember, you are talking about our citizen’s resources here. If you’re attempting to make some sort of argument about civil disobedience, why not just go light up a spliff on HIllsborough Street in front of a cop to prove your point? (And – by the way – if you care about this issue so much, why not start your own private, non-profit community college for the undocumented?)
I think immigration is good on net — probably as much or more than the most compassionate lefty. But the rule of law is nothing to be toyed with.
-Max Borders
The numbers are misleading. If there is a spread between Community College tuition receipts and budget, the explanation can hardly be found among the 9,000 out-of-state curriculum students much less the 340 undocumented curriculum students out of a total student population of 800,000.
To get a handle on the numbers Curriculum and Continuing Education enrollment is converted to Full-Time Equivalent. (FTE)
FTE is about 200,000 “students”. Actual headcount is about 800,000 students of which about 32% are Curriculum students and 68% are Continuing Education students. (There is some overlap between Curriculum and Continuing education. Actual number of Curriculum students is about 270,000, actual number of Continuing Education students is about 580,000)
The CC system budget is about $1.35 billion per year.
Budget per FTE per year is about $7,000
Maximum full-time Curriculum In-State Tuition are about $1,300
(25% of expenditures, 19% of budget)
Estimated receipts per curriculum FTE are about: $1,100
(21% of expenditures, 14% of budget)
Expenditures per regular curriculum FTE are about: $5,200
(74% of budget)
Maximum full-time Curriculum Out-of-State Tuition is about $7,500
(144% of expenditures, 107% of budget)
Clearly out-of-state and undocumented students are paying more than their fair “share”.
There are many variables in Community College costs. How do we further amortize capital expenses and recover from out-of-state tuition? How do we fairly distribute receipts and expenses between curriculum populations and programs and continuing education populations and programs? Within curriculum programs, how do we balance the high cost of capital intensive programs like nursing which may run about 4 times the average? These are issues that may explain the spreads.
On the face of it, this seems like pretty good detail with the numbers. Much appreciated. I’m not sure how this level of granularity helps the case for illegals allowing the system to “profit” — more like ‘slightly ofsetting costs’. This issue is not really about whether undocumented students are being subsidized to the tune of 1/2, 2/3 or 3/4 of tuition. It is that they are here benefitting from a system that is and ought to be reserved for US citizens.
What’s perhaps as curious, however, is that people actually believe there are only 340 undocumented workers. I’m sure this is counts the number of people who are actually honest on their application forms. I’d venture to guess that a full 50% of the people in Continuing Ed ESL are here illegally. That they’re using false documents and numbers to apply doesn’t help the case for allowing them to enter.