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THE “DREAM” IS OVER: DREAM ACT DIES IN COMMITTEE
By Michael B. Brodkorb | May 7, 2007
"St. Paul, Minn. — Supporters of a measure that would give in-state tuition to the children of illegal immigrants will have to wait another year. A legislative conference committee decided to drop the so-called DREAM Act provision from the broader higher education budget bill.
Sen. Sandy Pappasm DFL-St. Paul, says they dropped it from the bill because Gov. Pawlenty said he would veto the entire budget bill if the provision remained.
'The governor's opposition is why we dropped it. It's in both bills and we feel very strongly about it, but we just decided we weren't going to have a big emotional scenem' Pappas said. 'It's too painful for all of us. We're going to try to work with students to find some other options.'" Source: MPR, May 7, 2007
Click here for complete story.
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The aftershocks of Governor Pawlenty's veto of the bonding bill last week continue to be felt at the state capitol.
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20 Responses to “THE “DREAM” IS OVER: DREAM ACT DIES IN COMMITTEE”
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May 7th, 2007 at 5:43 PM
Thank goodness for the Govenor. My daughter with a 4.0 grade point average will have a hard time getting into the U of M in two years, can you imagine how many more spaces would have been lost to illegal immigrants. The DFL is going to leave my children without a place in our universities and that makes me angry.
May 7th, 2007 at 5:54 PM
Your daughter with a 4.0 will be fine in getting into the U and would not be affected whatsoever by this bill. The correlation between allowing children of illegal immigrants to have in-state tuition and making it harder for others to get into the U is really weak. The only way is if the U has a quota for minnesota residents to get into the school, which I am sure is true. In that case, the illegal immigrant’s child would be considered higher up and if they were better qualified to attend the U, then they would get the spot over your child.
Allowing more qualified students into better schools, sounds logical to me….
And PS, the DFL will do wonders for the U, the GOP are the ones who cut their funding and make the tuition go up.
May 7th, 2007 at 5:56 PM
what an incredible bunch of losers. it sickens me to think they are at the helm. i can’t wait for them to come door knocking next election cycle.
May 7th, 2007 at 6:17 PM
Andrew, tuition goes up at the U regardless how much money the state pumps into it. It matters not.
This bill was unmitigated bullshit. Frankly, if we know they’re illegals while they’re in high school, we should be deporting them then. Not incenting them further. State aid should be for legal residence only. Period.
May 7th, 2007 at 6:22 PM
I’m unclear about something: are the children of illegal immigrants allowed to go to the U if they pay their tuition at the out-of-state rate? Are they allowed to get student loans? I know that there are banks that target their services to people of questionable citizenship-status.
May 7th, 2007 at 7:10 PM
Otter, yes… I think that’s right.
May 7th, 2007 at 9:05 PM
The U is no different than the K-12 education monopoly– increaaing the amount you give them only makes them demand still more. There is never enough money. And the idea that “tuition goes up” is the problem. Let us say that the U “RAISES tuition,” and then we can put our finger on the greedy hogs causing the problem.
I’ll say it again: Give every kid a voucher for college equal to the U’s state subsidy, and watch prices fall like a stone. Vouchers only good if you can get accepted at an accredited school.
May 7th, 2007 at 11:05 PM
When I met with some legislators passing through St. Cloud, I was told that, several years ago, the U of M told lawmakers that they needed a double-digit increase to keep tuitions stable. The legislature granted their funding request. The next fall, the U still jacked tuition up by almost 15 percent, a higher percent than the funding increase.
More is the DFL mantra. It isn’t meant to be a dollar amount. It’s a bargaining position. That’s why I’m happy that Gov. Pawlenty told the DFL’s parasites NO, NO, NO. It’s long past time for the DFL to get over their temper tantrum & start living in the real world for a change.
May 7th, 2007 at 11:36 PM
If the Republicans think the U of M is worthless and a waste of tax-payer dollars why do they keep attending? Why did Pawlenty accept a state subsidy to attend law school?
Compared to most schools tuition at the U of M is a bargain!
May 8th, 2007 at 12:01 AM
No one said the U of M is worthless or a waste of taxpayer dollars Randy. They said that it matters not how much an increase the state gives it, they will continue the double-digit tuition increases.
And, if “compared to most schools, tuition at the U of M is a bargain”, then we’ll all agree that there’s not a state funding crisis.
May 8th, 2007 at 12:08 AM
Excellent point, Randy. Especially since the private law schools in Minnesota don’t hold a candle to the U of M. Lots of people pass on full or nearly full scholarships to them to attend the U at full price. Oh yeah, and the bus and med schools totally suck, too (please detect the sarcasm). All the whiny Republicans in grad school there should leave immediately.
May 8th, 2007 at 2:44 AM
This isn’t wacky liberal legislation as about a full 20% of the House GOP caucus were listed as co-authors to the bill. When the higher ed bill was debated in the Senate, several Republicans supported removing the provision from the omnibus bill due to the veto threat but pledged support if the bill was on its own.
There was no fiscal note to the Dream Act bill. Also, only about 10,000 to 15,000 undocumented immigrants are enrolled in K-12 school. Therefore, you can figure less than 1,000 students annually taking advantage of this; the gloom and doom scenarios of someone’s 4.0 daughter not getting into the U can be shelved, please!
By the way, Michael, I think it’s time for you to add us over at IDHA to your lefty links section!
May 8th, 2007 at 7:30 AM
I know students right now who did not get into the University of Minnesota with a 4.0. Talk to the kids who go UND or NDSU because of the stiff competion at the UofM. This is gloom and doom for some kids, not one space at the U should be open to illegals.
May 8th, 2007 at 7:31 AM
I don’t care if only one person benefits from this ridiculous legislation. Non-residents, and most specifically illegal non-residents, should not be getting state subsidies for college.
As a matter of fact, they should be thrown in jail on applying for college, and sent back to their country of origin. Period.
May 8th, 2007 at 8:33 AM
“I know students right now who did not get into the University of Minnesota with a 4.0.”
I find that very hard to believe unless they have a couple felonies on their record.
May 8th, 2007 at 12:30 PM
The U is just like K-12, Giving them all the money they ask for will only guarantee one thing…they will be asking for more money. It has been proven every time. Hell, even that rocket scientist Ventura figured that out!
I think the funding for illegals is just a backdoor funding increase disguised as a (misguided) humanitarian bill. Then in a few years you’ll hear them say “Due to all of all the special programs that we had to add and fund to support the illegal influx we now need an additional (insert double digit number here) percent increase to keep the (med, business, engineering) collages open or we’ll have to increase tuition by (Big number here).â€
The universities justify public funding for one reason only; provide educated citizens to our state’s economy. Public good. If an individual can not legally enter our economy why would we fund their education?
May 8th, 2007 at 4:16 PM
No surprise “the foul mouthed” State Senator (for life) Sandy Pappas is behind is behind this. On public TV Almanac “the foul mouthed” Sandy Pappas defended her “best friend arrested Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) fugitive Kathleen Ann Soliah/Sara Jane Olson (Soliah/Olson)with “Don’t the police have more current crimes.” when Nick O’Hare, who was then the head of hte FBI in Sacramento was also there in the dicussion.
Where do we start with the “foul mouthed” Sandy Pappas defending her “best freind”. Let’s try.
Sandy Pappas represents a largely Jewish district. Perhaps Sandy Pappas forgot about the holocost which also happened a long time ago.
Soliah/Olson joined and aided and abbetted the SLA, who assainated the first black school superintendent in the US. (to papphrase Forrest Gump, “racist is as racist does”) His name was Marcus Foster http;//makingschoolswork.com . Soliah?olson was not involved in the Foster assaination but she joined the group fully aware of it’s racist activity. Soliah/Olson next ried to kill Los Angeles police officers by helping place nail laden pipebombs under their cop cars. Next, the SLA cold bloodly executed a mother of four for the crime of depositng church collection money in the bank. Sandy Pappas’s “best friend” Soliah/Olson was the ringleader of the action “counting off the seconds” and directing the robbery. (she plead guilty to this.) Perhaps “the foul mouthed” State Senator Sandy Pappas should be judged by the people she vouches for. I’ve followed this and “the foul mouthed” Sandy Pappas has not, to the best of my knowlege retracted anything she state in support of Soliah/Olson.
May 8th, 2007 at 4:36 PM
Looks like the DFL is going to give the governor his relitivly meaningless social BS. I think we all know what the trade off will be.
Govenor taxey not a tax only knows one thing to do with our money. Spend like a Democrat and then spend some more.
May 8th, 2007 at 6:52 PM
Nice try wikiperson and Randy. But Republicans aren’t whining about the U of M nor are they opposed to the university system. We are furious that taxpayers should have to subsidize the tuition of illegal immigrants when kids from Iowa, for example, who are citizens can’t even get the same break. This is yet another example of the DFL overreaching their so-called mandate. Ask people who belong to unions what they think of this.
May 8th, 2007 at 11:52 PM
I got accepted to the U and I wasnt even an honor student, if you can’t get accepted with a 4.0 then you have done something to fuck up your chances that are your own fault.
With the U of M becoming more and more competitive to get into and the U having to turn away great students due to space, wouldnt we want to get those qualified in even if they are illegal immigrants? I imagine many illegal alien children (who mind you had no choice in coming to America and did not choose to be an illegal alien) do not apply to the U because it is too exspensive. Imagine now if they could afford to go there.
The HUGE number of applicants would weed out the crappy illegal alien children who did not excel in high school and we would have the cream of the crop people in our school system. People who would most likely stay here in Minnesota and work high paying jobs (assuming they get citizenship) and do great things possibly here. Furthermore, an illegal alien being qualified to be accepted by the U would be a damn near feat considering all the troubles they go through, these kids would be brilliant and hard-working, definitely kids I would want in the U and staying here in MN.