Arizona to offer discounted college tuition to undocumented high school graduates

Students without legal immigration status who graduate from Arizona high schools will now be eligible for discounted tuition rates at state universities.

The rule change, effectively immediately, was unanimously approved Thursday by the Arizona Board of Regents, AZCentral.com reports.

{mosads}Previously, such high school graduates had to pay the out-of-state tuition rate, amounting to about $30,000 a year.

That cost is now reduced to about $16,000, which is still higher than the $11,000 rate for other in-state residents, the newspaper reported.

The new amount, called the “non-resident tuition rate,” applies to students who graduated from an Arizona high school but are not otherwise eligible for resident tuition status. Arizona State University told the newspaper that 329 students paid the non-resident tuition rate last semester.

Eighteen states have provisions allowing students without legal immigration status to receive in-state tuition, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Those states include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Washington.

Oklahoma and Rhode Island allow in-state tuition rates to be offered to students without legal status through Board of Regents decisions, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.