Immigrant students across the state celebrated Thursday afternoon as the Tuition Equality bill (SB612/HB675) passed the Senate floor 21-12. When TIRRC youth members gathered on graduation day in May of 2012 to announce their campaign for Tuition Equality, they pledged to one another that they would educate their community, lobby lawmakers, and tell their stories until Tuition Equality was a reality in Tennessee.
Donned in cap and gowns, TIRRC youth leaders celebrated outside the Senate Chambers as a majority of Senators voted for the bill. The companion bill in the House, HB675, will be heard in the House Finance Sub-committee and Finance committee, and likely on the House floor, in the coming days.
"This is a tremendous victory for all of us who've worked so hard to make tuition equality a reality," said Diana Montero, a TIRRC youth member since 2012. "We're close, and we'll keep working hard until every Tennessee student can pay a fair price for college."
"Tennessee Senators voted today to bring our tuition policies in line with the more than 20 other states, including Alabama, that have already recognized the benefits of increasing access to higher education," said Stephanie Teatro, co-executive director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition. "We're confident members of the House of Representatives will also vote to remove barriers that stand between these ambitious, talented students and their dreams of enrolling in a Tennessee college."
The bill as amended in the Senate Finance committee requires students be "lawfully present," including after receiving Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals to qualify for in-state tuition. Over 7,000 Tennessee students have already received DACA and roughly 8,000 additional students will become eligible to apply when they turn 15.
The campaign for Tuition Equality, led by students who would benefit from the policy, has garnered the support of the Nashville and Memphis Chambers of Commerce, the Tennessee Board of Regents and the University of Tennessee system, and member organizations from across the state including Latino Memphis and the Unity Center in Cleveland.