Author: Chris Alto

Lacking any consistent rationale, State Senator Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga), the perpetual sponsor of the Senate’s bills to give illegal alien students taxpayer-subsidized in-state tuition, last year co-sponsored a bill allowing judges to give illegal aliens convicted of felonies longer sentences based on their immigration status. The bill was signed into law in 2017. While Gardenhire is willing to punish illegal aliens who commit crimes, he prefers to dismantle state law and reward parents for violating the country’s immigration laws, forcing Tennessee’s taxpayers to provide a free education for the children they brought with them. English Language Learner (ELL) services in Tennessee’s public schools are funded through the state’s education funding formula called the BEP (Basic Education Program) and comes primarily from state and local revenue meaning that every Tennessee taxpayer shares in the cost regardless of which county’s schools are providing the services. State education funding provides 70 percent of the expenditure leaving the local share at 30 percent. In fiscal year 2012, total funding for ELL services was $70 million with the state share at $49 million and the local share at $21 million. The most recent fiscal year’s total funding has grown to $122.3 million with the state share…

Up for a fourth try to award a statutorily classified “state or local public benefit” to illegal immigrants in Tennessee, Rep. Mark White continues to tell his legislator colleagues that his bill is about education and not immigration even though the state law White needs to change was “based on Congress’s asserted interest in ‘remov[ing] the incentive for illegal immigration provided by the availability of public benefits.’” Tennessee’s “Eligibility Verification for Entitlements Act” (EVEA) passed in 2012, classifies in-state tuition is a state benefit. The EVEA requires that: …every state governmental entity and local health department shall verify that each applicant eighteen (18) years of age or older, who applies for a federal, state or local public benefit from the entity or local health department, is a United States citizen or lawfully present in the United States in the manner provided in this chapter. The EVEA defers to the federal law definition of  a “state or local public benefit.” A 2017 opinion issued by Attorney General Herb Slatery notes that this federal law was “based on Congress’s asserted interest in ‘remov[ing] the incentive for illegal immigration provided by the availability of public benefits.’” The federal law which limits the authority of state governments…

The Education Subcommittee of the Tennessee House of Representatives passed State Rep. Mark White’s (R-Memphis)  bill granting in-state tuition to illegal immigrant students in Tennessee on a voice vote Tuesday afternoon. With the exception of State Rep. Dawn White’s (R-Murfreesboro) strongly worded statement opposing White’s bill, no discussion was had by the subcommittee before they passed the bill on a voice vote. Bill sponsor State Rep. Mark White (no relation to State Rep. Dawn White), who chairs the Education Subcommittee, opted to move his bill up from number thirty-five on the agenda to the first one voted on by the subcommittee. White’s bill, HB2429, is his fourth attempt to give illegal immigrant students access to taxpayer subsidized in-state tuition. To do this, White’s bill dismantles state law by removing reduced college tuition from Tennessee’s definition of “state or local public benefit. Stating her opposition to the bill, State Rep. Dawn White noted the high fiscal impact from illegal immigration on Tennessee taxpayers estimated to be $793 million in 2017. She also referenced the magnetizing effect that offering the reduced college tuition would have on Tennessee, a point worth noting since none of Tennessee’s border states offer in-state tuition to illegal immigrants. Among the…

Last year, State Rep. Mark White (R-Memphis) gave his word to House Education chairman Harry Brooks that he would not try to change state law that currently says taxpayer subsidized in-state tuition is a state benefit. White made that promise with regard to his bill HB660 which removed in-state tuition from the current state law definition of “state or local public benefit” so that it could be provided to illegal immigrants. This year, White has broken that promise by filing a new bill, HB2429 which combines parts of the two in-state tuition bills he sponsored last year, including the section that would redefine “state or local public benefit.” The first in-state tuition bill that White tried to pass last year, HB863, failed to pass the Education Committee in a close 7-6 vote. White deferred his second bill HB660, to the current session. When White first introduced this bill in the Education Subcommittee, Chairman Harry Brooks questioned the section removing in-state tuition from being a state benefit as currently contained in state law. White gave his word that he would amend that section out if the bill was allowed to go before the full Education Committee. The bill failed to pass the Education committee…