NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – The state attorney general says Tennessee’s public colleges and universities can’t be left to decide whether to offer in-state tuition breaks for students whose parents brought or kept them in the country illegally.
Attorney General Herbert Slatery’s opinion says state lawmakers would have to pass a bill explicitly making those immigrants eligible.
The opinion addresses state legislation proposing that the boards of individual schools determine eligibility for in-state tuition. The opinion says the bill doesn’t expressly mention “unlawful aliens” and wouldn’t leave the decision to legislators, and federal law requires both.
The proposal to let individual institutions make in-state tuition decisions failed earlier this year, as did a bill to grant those students in-state tuition across all public colleges and universities.
Both bills will likely be considered again in 2018.