By Eric Carter
Education Reporter

DENVER, CO - A large Colorado college had no authority to offer illegal immigrants a discount on tuition under a plan the school unveiled earlier this month.

The opinion from Republican Attorney General John Suthers is non-binding, and Metropolitan State College of Denver disputes his analysis. But it could lead to renewed debate about the place of undocumented immigrants at the state's post-secondary institutions.

Suthers said Metro State circumvented the Colorado General Assembly by approving the discount.

The Republican-controlled state House of Representatives earlier this year threw out a bill that would have created a tuition rate for undocumented immigrants similar to what Metro State has put forth.

"Reasonable people of good intentions and good faith can disagree about the wisdom of granting discounted tuition to undocumented students," Suthers wrote in his opinion.

"But that decision is one that under existing law must be made by the legislature, not individual institutions of higher learning," he added.

The Obama administration earlier this month shook up the national debate over immigration with the announcement of a rule change that would extend eligibility to stay in the country to illegal immigrants up to age 30 who came to the United States as children and do not pose a risk to national security. They would also be able to apply for work permits.

Separately, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule any day on Arizona's tough immigration law, which among its provisions requires police to check the immigration status of anyone detained and suspected of being in the country illegally.

Metro State's plan is meant for illegal immigrants who have lived in the state for three years, graduated from high school, and not committed any crimes while in the United States.

The tuition of $3,358 per semester would be higher than for in-state students, but less than for out-of-state students. It is slated to be instituted in the fall.

By comparison, the out-of-state tuition rate at the school is over $7,900.

Suthers issued the non-binding opinion at the request of the state's multi-campus community college system, which may consider a similar rate structure.

Metro State's board of trustees said in a statement last Tuesday that it was never its intent to "disregard Colorado's law or its legislature," and that they do not believe they did.

"The structure of nonresident tuition rates by higher education institutions are not required to be authorized by the state legislature and the tuition rates contained no state subsidy," the trustees said.

But Suthers disagreed, and took a swipe at the college for not consulting his office before approving the plan. The school has an enrollment of about 24,000 students.

"Discounted tuition is a 'public benefit,' which under the current state law may only be provided to individuals who prove their lawful presence in the United States," Suthers wrote.

Several states including California and Texas have passed laws that allow some illegal immigrants to pay the same tuition rates as legal residents from within those states.

By Eric Carter
Education Contributor

High school graduates may be attending college in great numbers, but that doesn’t mean they are necessarily ready for higher education.

According to Complete College America, a Washington-based nonprofit aimed at increasing college completion, 4 in 10 high school graduates are required to take remedial courses when they start college. Additionally, Two-thirds of those students attending four-year colleges in Ohio and Kentucky fail to earn their degrees within six years: a number that is on par with national statistics.

College completion rates are even lower at two-year and community colleges. In Ohio and Kentucky, only 6.4 percent and 5.5 percent, respectively, of remedial students earn an associate’s degree in three years. The rest either require more than three years, or withdraw.

Researchers say that remedial numbers have increased from nearly one-third of incoming college freshmen in 2001, to about 40 percent currently. The most common remedial -- otherwise known as “developmental” -- classes are math, English and writing, and many students are unaware that they need theses courses until they start planning their schedules and colleges decide who is required to take placement tests.

About 1.7 million students across the United States take remedial classes, a cost of $3 billion a year since developmental courses often cost as much as regular college courses.

Experts also say that remedial coursework makes taxpayers pay twice -- once for students to learn in high school, and again in college.

“It’s not efficient to be using those higher education dollars for remedial coursework,” Miguel Ocacio, student at DePaul University, told Le Prestige. “It’s not only more difficult and more expensive, it also makes students feel like they can't compete with the other kids.”

The ACT indicates only about a third of high school students are college-ready, yet around two-thirds of them are college-bound every year.

Even high school grads who earned As and Bs in honors courses are in need of remedial coursework. A national survey showed four out of five students in college remediation had high school GPAs above a 3.0.

According to Chicago’s high school progress reports last October, just 22 percent of students graduating from the city’s high schools in 2011 were prepared for college coursework.

In January, the New York Post reported that nearly eight out of 10 high school graduates in New York City who enrolled at CUNY community colleges last fall were deemed unable to do college-level work and ultimately required to take remedial classes.