Column for September 21, 2006

Two weeks ago, I wrote a column about the need for local towns, including Selma, to deal with the problem of illegal immigration. I wrote about Hazleton, Pennsylvania and their ordinance dealing with illegal immigration. That ordinance, by the way, is available for viewing on troylaplante.com.

Every so often I see something so incredibly outrageous that I just want to scream. I was doing some surfing on the internet and found a news bite about former North Carolina Governor Jim Hunt. He was addressing a conference of education professionals. He believes that we need to make public education more affordable for the children of illegal aliens by giving them in-state tuition rates in our state university system rather than nonresident rates.

Illegal aliens already abuse our health care system, flood our hospitals and clinics, get welfare, food stamps, fill our K-12 school systems, and some politicians are trying to give them Social Security benefits. Why in the world should we continue to subsidize them by helping with their higher education? Of course in-state tuition rates will be subsidized at taxpayer expense. In-state students usually get preference over out of state students. What this means is that people who are not here legally will get preferential placement over legal citizens as well as cheaper tuition.

Legal citizens in any other state can not get in-state tuition rates here in North Carolina. These potential students may have been born and raised here in the United States, already held jobs, paid taxes, and paid into the Social Security system. They may be spectacular athletes, exemplary citizens, totally law abiding, and even wonderful scholars. However, someone who broke the law by entering this country and continues to scoff at the law by remaining here will get lower tuition rates than any of these students if Mr. Hunt's idea is undertaken.

The odd thing is that Hunt claims that we need to offer in-state tuition to illegal immigrants to produce a more educated work force. Yet we are told by pundits and those who support open immigration that these same immigrants are necessary to take low paying and unskilled jobs that Americans are unwilling to take. Well, which is it?

The whole idea of giving in-state tuition to illegal aliens is just plain unfair to our citizens, taxpayers, and any student that has to pay out of state tuition rates in North Carolina. It is also unfair to every alien waiting to legally enter this country for a better opportunity. Rewarding criminal behavior is not only unfair and fiscally irresponsible, it is just plain morally corrupt.

Jim Hunt is quoted on the internet as saying "Education is our future - it's everything." Education is important. However, we are educating our own citizens and illegal aliens alike to believe that honest hard work, playing by the rules, and ethics are not as important as taking short cuts, ignoring the law, and demanding public assistance for reward. This will only contribute to a populace that will become morally bankrupt and a public financial picture that is just plain bankrupt. Let us not rob the future of those who deserve our support and give it to those who literally steal that future.

I realize that the children of illegal aliens may not have willingly come here illegally and are the responsibility of their law breaking parents. However, that does not change their status. Nor does it make it any more fair to tax payers, legal immigrants, and in this case, out of state students. Furthermore, we all realize that it is not just children of illegal immigrants that will take advantage of the lower tuition rates, if enacted.

Perhaps out of state students just need to claim that they are illegal immigrants rather than honest American citizens that just happen to live in another state. Then at least they may have a chance at getting the slot in one of our schools that would be denied them because that place is being taken by an illegal alien...and for a lower price.