Voces - De La Frontera

"I have always wanted to go to the University of Wisconsin- Madison, and I have the grades to get in, but with no access to loans I could not afford to pay the out of state rates to attend. With in state tuition rates, I can finally make it. It's overwhelming, I feel like I can finally follow my dreams," says Jannet, a student from Madison, in response to the Wisconsin budget signed today.

Today, June 29th, 2009 at 11:00 am Governor Jim Doyle signed into law the 2009-2011 biennial state budget which includes a provision that would require universities to charge in state tuition rates to undocumented students who have lived in Wisconsin at least 3 years prior to graduating from high school or obtaining a GED. This makes Wisconsin the 11th state to make this change following Texas, Oklahoma, New York, California, Nebraska, Kansas, Utah, Illinois, New Mexico and Washington. Advocacy groups like Voces de la Frontera, Students United for Immigrant Rights (SUFRIR) and Students United in the Struggle (SUITS) have been calling for this change since 2004.

Al Levie, teacher at Horlick High School, sees this as a great step forward for education in Wisconsin. He says "as an advisor to SUFRIR and SUITS, I am extremely proud of the thousands of students who weighed in on this important issue over the last 4 years. They marched, rallied, testified and they held their elected politicians accountable on this issue. I truly believe if they had not struggled for it, in state tuition would not have become a reality. In state will remove a huge financial barrier for our immigrant students wishing to pursue a college education."

While community groups commend legislators for including in state tuition in the final budget, they were disappointed by the removal of a provision that would have created drivers cards for immigrants. Christine Neumann Ortiz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera claims, "This is no doubt a historic day for civil rights in education, but the crisis in the immigrant community created by the loss of drivers licenses will not go away. It goes without saying that we along with our partners in the Coalition for Safe Roads will work to see that legislation is introduced this session for drivers cards."

She adds, "Part of the campaign will include community dialogue and forums where people can voice their feelings on drivers cards and also immigration reform. We recognize that the long term solution to problems like in state tuition and drivers cards depend on passage of fair comprehensive immigration reform and that will of course continue to be a cornerstone of our organizing."