Immigrant Families Benefiting From New Tennessee Tuition Law: Maybe 0

Gov. Bill Haslam signs the bill granting instate tuition to U.S. citizens with undocumented parents. He’s flanked by Sen. Todd Gardenhire (left) and Majority Leader Gerald McCormick. Credit: TN Photo Services

Starting this fall, students with undocumented parents will be able to get in-state tuition at Tennessee universities and community colleges. The Republican legislature was commended for making overtures to the immigrant community. But the gesture might have been only symbolic.

“It’s a start,” says State Sen. Todd Gardenhire of Chattanooga. “You know, no, there won’t be right many at first. But it opens the door.”

Gardenhire spearheaded the legislation that allows children born in the U.S. – meaning they’re citizens – to automatically qualify for in-state rates. The concern was that if their parents are undocumented, they may not have the ability to prove they’re Tennessee residents. Gardenhire admits he doesn’t know anyone who would fit this criteria.

A spokesperson for the Tennessee Board of Regents confirms that the system knows of one student who previously attended Volunteer State in Gallatin and was being charged out-of-state rates. For purposes of Gardenhire’s bill, the TBR estimated there were 56 students in the same predicament across all of its campuses, but it was purely an estimate.

Immigrant advocates believe that number is probably inflated.

“We’ve never encountered a U.S. citizen student who has been denied in-state tuition,” says Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition spokesman Eben Cathey.

TIRRC didn’t raise this point during the legislative debate, primarily because they were pinning their hopes on Gardenhire’s other bill that would have granted instate tuition to so-called “Dreamers,” who were brought to the U.S. as kids but went to high school in Tennessee. That bill never came to a vote, even though the proposal for citizens passed rather easily.

“Was it a positive, did it reflect a more refined attitude towards immigration in our state? Absolutely,” Cathey says. “But I think granting undocumented students in-state tuition would have a much larger impact.”

Gardenhire says he plans to continue his push to give undocumented immigrants instate tuition next year, and his effort just got a shot in the arm. He says this month the second highest Republican in the House – Majority Leader Gerald McCormick – volunteered to shepherd the legislation.