A political action committee supporting challenger Bobby Harshbarger’s campaign has made disprovable claims about incumbent State Senator John Lundberg’s (R-Bristol) voting history on the issue of allowing in-state tuition for illegal immigrants.
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Stung by the results of the recent Tennessee Star Poll showing 84 percent of likely Republican primary voters oppose providing in-state tuition to illegal immigrant students, State Senator Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga), sponsor of two bills that would accomplish precisely that objective, complained on Monday that the poll asked about illegal immigrants rather than “children of undocumented immigrants who are brought to this country when they are very young.” “The question was worded in such a way to get the result they wanted,” Gardenhire complained to the Chattanooga Times Free Press. The Tennessee Star Poll question asked likely Republican voters the following: “In 2018, the Tennessee General Assembly is expected to reconsider a bill to provide in-state college tuition to illegal immigrant students. Do you support or oppose providing in-state college tuition to illegal immigrant students?” 84 percent of Tennessee likely Republican primary voters disapproved of in-state tuition for illegal immigrants. A resounding 68.9 percent strongly disapproved, the poll results showed: 68.9% Strongly Disapproved 15.5% Somewhat Disapproved 5.9% Somewhat Approved 5.2% Strongly Approved 4.5% Not Sure/don’t know “Gardenhire said that’s misleading,” the Times Free Press reported: He said “we’re not giving them anything” because the students live in Tennessee and would pay the…
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The Gardenhire/White bills SB1014/HB863 granting in-state college tuition to illegal immigrant students are moving through their respective chambers. As reported by The Tennessee Star, the Senate Education Committee passed Gardenhire’s bill last week in a 7-2 vote. Yesterday, the House Education Subcommittee on Planning & Administration was passed on a voice vote by Republican members Harry Brooks, Mark White, Eddie Smith and Democrats John DeBerry and Johnnie Turner. Rep. Dawn White asked to be recorded as a no vote. The House bill is scheduled to be heard by the full Education Planning & Administration Committee next Tuesday, and the Senate bill has been referred to Senate Finance, Ways & Means Committee. Gardenhire’s first attempt in 2014, never made it out of the Education Committee. The 2015 version of the Gardenhire/White bill passed the Senate 21-12. Despite a 49-47 House vote in favor of the bill it failed to achieve the constitutionally required 50 vote minimum. Illegal immigrant students including any student granted a temporary two-year deferred deportation under Obama’s DACA program, are ineligible for federal financial aid for school. However, states and individual schools have discretion to provide financial assistance. Tennessee’s HOPE lottery scholarship can be used at both four…
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By: Karen Lees The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) reports that the burden of illegal immigration on taxpayers in Tennessee for both state and local expenditures jumped from $285 million in 2007 to $547 million in 2013, according to a FAIR 2013 study. To add to that burden, proposed legislation that would grant eligibility for illegal aliens to receive in-state tuition is being considered this session by legislators at the Tennessee State Capitol. In most cases, the discount for in-state tuition is roughly 50%, leaving Tennessee taxpayers with half the cost of tuition for each illegal student. Senator Todd Gardenhire’s SB 0635 & SB 1014 and Representative Mark White’s HB 0660 & HB 0863 seek to abdicate the legislature’s delegated authority to a Board of Regents or other un-elected body governing Tennessee’s post secondary schools. With slumping attendance rates, the decision left to un-elected boards to fill empty seats in the classroom will take priority over compliance with federal immigration law and public safety. The summary for SB0635 states: This bill authorizes the governing body of each public institution of higher education to determine the qualifications that students must possess to be eligible for payment of in-state tuition and fees.…
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State Sen. Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) and State Rep. Mark White (R-Chattanooga) have broadened the scope of the 2017 version of the in-state tuition for illegal immigrant students bill they have introduced to the current session of the Tennessee General Assembly. The 2015 Gardenhire/White bill that would have given in-state tuition to illegal immigrant students was restricted to grantees of Obama’s 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The 2017 version of the bill now applies to illegal immigrant students classified in the “Unaccompanied Alien Child” (UAC) category of immigration status. In his much publicized radio meltdown with WWTN’s Ralph Bristol on Friday, Sen. Gardenhire described an illegal immigrant his bill would provide in-state tuition benefits to as “somebody that’s got a 4.0 average, was the valedictorian of their class.” But some UACs who would potentially be eligible for these taxpayer funded tuition breaks are not exactly the model citizens Gardenhire described. In 2013, sixteen year old Edwin Mejia, a UAC from Honduras, was transported to Tennessee and released into the custody of his brother, an illegal immigrant living north of Nashville in Madison, Tennessee. The following year the two brothers moved to Nebraska where Edwin struck and killed 21-year old…
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State Senator Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) had a live on-air melt down Friday during a radio interview on WWTN 99.7 FM when Nashville’s Morning News host Ralph Bristol questioned him about the fairness of granting illegal immigrant students in-state tuition. Gardenhire is the sponsor of SB 1014/HB863 in the Senate. Rep. Mark White (R-Chattanooga) is the sponsor in the House. The bill “exempts undocumented students from paying out-of-state tuition at a state institution of higher education, at the discretion of the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR), the state university governing boards, or the University of Tennessee (UT) board of trustees,” according to the bill summary in the Fiscal Note prepared by the Tennessee General Assembly Fiscal Review Committee: Such individuals shall meet certain requirements to receive in-state tuition, including but not limited to, attending a school in this state for the two years immediately prior to graduation from high school; graduating from a Tennessee high school or obtaining a GED or HiSET credential awarded by a state-approved institution or organization, or completing high school in a Tennessee home school program; and is registered as an entering student or is enrolled at a state institution of higher education. The bill passed the…
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