Senator rips Regents on Colotl issue
by Katy Ruth Camp
krcamp@mdjonline.co

June 25, 2010 12:00 AM

KENNESAW – State Sen. John Wiles (R-Kennesaw) released an essay on Thursday, arguing that some applicants to Kennesaw State and Georgia’s other public colleges are being denied admission, while illegal immigrants are allowed to enroll.

“Perhaps the Board of Regents would like to explain to the 2,747 applicants who were denied admission to Kennesaw State University in 2009, just how Jessica got in but they didn’t,” Wiles wrote, referring to Jessica Colotl.

Colotl, 21, who was brought to this country as a child by her parents from Mexico, made news in May after it was learned she is an illegal immigrant and had been paying in-state tuition at KSU since 2006.

Wiles said the 2,747 figure came from KSU officials. Kennesaw State does not have a cap on its admissions, but it does have minimum requirements, Arlethia Perry-Johnson, special assistant to President Dan Papp, said in an email to the Journal.

“Any student who meets these criteria is admitted to KSU,” Perry-Johnson said. She said that 2,715 applicants were denied admission to KSU in fall 2009.

Wiles’ essay also dismissed as “nonsense” the idea that illegals may attend state universities as long as they pay the full tuition cost, and he insisted again that all students attending state universities are subsidized in part by taxpayers.

“Out-of-state tuition does not cover the full cost of educating a student in the system,” he wrote. “And even if it did, such a policy doesn’t address the unfairness of denying that admission opportunity to legal immigrants and U.S. citizens. Moreover, it remains an illegal act. The law strictly prohibits illegal aliens from receiving post-secondary education benefits.”

That contradicts Erroll Davis, chancellor of the University System of Georgia, who said this week that illegal immigrants may attend the state’s public colleges. The Board of Regents oversees the 35 colleges in the University System.

“We’re comfortable that our legal position is quite correct,” Davis said.

Wiles said in a phone interview that his editorial was written in response to an opinion piece earlier this week in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution by Cynthia Tucker, titled, “It’s dumb to block smart kids from going to college, even if they’re here illegally.”

“I was outraged by that,” Wiles said. “American taxpayers should only be paying for those who are in this country legally to be educated,” Wiles said.

Wiles said students should have to prove they are in the country legally before being admitted to public universities.

“They should be required to verify their nationality at the offset, and it should automatically be a part of the application,” he said. “If you can’t prove you’re a legal resident of the U.S., then you can’t take up the spot of someone who is and wants to attend the university as well. Period. Parents pay taxes for years expecting their children to be able to use those taxes to help fund their education at a public university. So when they are not given that chance and someone who has never paid taxes is, it’s just wrong.”

Earlier this week, a special residency verification committee created by the Board of Regents held its first meeting, during which the members discussed asking the Attorney General for an opinion on whether illegal immigrants may attend at all. But the committee also spent a lot of time talking about how much tuition illegal immigrants should pay.

Wiles is locked in a tight bid for reelection against fellow Republican Lindsey Tippins, and the winner will be decided in the July 20 primary. Tippins also believes illegal immigrants should be barred from attending public colleges.

Read more: The Marietta Daily Journal – Senator rips Regents on Colotl issue