Written By : John Hawkins

If, let’s say, you’re a student from North Carolina, Ohio, or Arizona who wants to go to a public university in Maryland, you have to pay a higher rate than teenagers who live in the state. On the other hand, if you’re in the country illegally, you get the cheaper in-state rate.

This week, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley signed a bill to require the state’s public universities to give undocumented aliens — generally illegal — in-state tuition privileges.

The bill, known as the Dream Act, is already the law in ten other states, including California, New York, Texas and Illinois.
But critics argue that the bill will give illegal aliens better treatment than Americans and legal immigrants — thanks to existing diversity policies at universities.

University of Maryland (College Park) computer science Prof. James Purtilo told FoxNews.com that, during his time as an associate dean, he frequently saw admission officers favor students because of their “undocumented” status.

“They favor students with special circumstances. ‘Undocumented alien’ would be one of these special circumstances… They help fill out the diversity picture for the admissions office.”

…Affirmative action benefits can be substantial. A study of selective universities by Princeton sociologists Thomas Espenshade and Alexandria Radford found that listing one’s race as “Hispanic” instead of ‘White” increased the likelihood of being admitted by the same amount as scoring an extra 130 points on the SAT. Compared to Asians, the study found, Hispanics receive a 240-point advantage.

No illegal should be given an unfair advantage over American kids trying to get a college education. That’s just not right. That being said, I would be okay with giving illegals a break on their college tuition if it allowed us to gather a list of them that we could deport.

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