Minorities panel is mum on tuition bill
The State Board of Education took up HB7 last week at a Capitol meeting and ended up split on the measure.
Coalition of Minorities Advisory Committee chairwoman Cyndee Miya said she didn't attend the meeting, called to take positions on legislation, because she wasn't aware of it.
But Miya is aware of the legislation. She said she's gotten e-mails saying, "We need to hear from you."
HB7 would repeal a 2002 law that allows undocumented students who have attended college for three years and graduated from high school to bypass getting a student visa and pay in-state tuition.
Supporters of the measure say the state is at risk for a lawsuit because it's against federal law to give a tuition rate to undocumented students that's not available to out-of-state citizens. Opponents, including the Utah System of Higher Education, the University of Utah and the Utah Association of Bilingual Educators, say passing HB7 would essentially slam the door to higher education for undocumented students.
"Part of our problem right now is we don't know exactly what the board's position is," she said.
"Part of our dilemma is really understanding why the school board didn't take a position," she said. "Sometimes we are in a Catch 22. We want to do things, but we have to remember we are the arm of the state school board. We serve at their will; we need to get our facts first."
However, former CMAC member Anna Jane Arroyo said the committee seems to be playing catchup on an issue that it should be on top of.
"As far as I'm concerned that's pretty lackadaisical," she said. "The Board of Education is relying on that particular group to keep them abreast and keep a finger on the pulse of what's happening in the ethnic minority community."
CMAC member Janice Jones Schroeder said she can't speak for the committee, but "as an individual I will take a stand on it."
E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com
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