Lawmakers, hear the people

The reason the legislative process is preferable to government by referendum is that legislation has to survive a committee hearing process.

But what if there is no hearing the people in the hearing process? What if interested Utahns pack a committee room to speak their piece about a legislative proposal that will impact whether they can obtain a college education or whether their businesses will have college-educated workers to meet the demands of the work place. There's no "what if" about it. On Thursday, the House Education Committee accepted no public comment on a bill that would repeal in-state tuition for children of undocumented workers. Existing law extends the in-state tuition to students who have lived in Utah for three years and graduated from high school. Utah's law focuses on residency as opposed to one's immigration status.

Instead of hearing Utahns who packed the committee room to comment on HB7, the bill's sponsor, Rep. Glenn Donnelson, R-North Ogden, yielded time to Kris Kobach, lead attorney in a lawsuit against Kansas over a similar law. Last summer, a federal judge in Kansas dismissed the lawsuit, finding that the plaintiffs, parents and students paying out-of-state tuition failed to prove they were injured by the Kansas law, or that they'd benefit if it were repealed.

Various camps oppose Utah's law, arguing it poses an equal protection issue for out-of-state students; that the practice could open the state to liabilities because existing law conflicts with federal law as well as thinly veiled hostility toward illegal immigrants.

Lawmakers could pass HB7, which would deny students — some of whom were brought to the United States as babes in arms by their undocumented parents — the opportunity to go to college. Less than 1 percent of students in Utah's System of Higher Education have used the tuition waiver. These students are few and far between because most children of illegal immigrants struggle to complete high school, let alone go on to college. Shouldn't a nation that prizes that opportunity extend it to all who qualify?

A better option would be to urge Congress to pass the Dream Act, sponsored by Utah Republicans Sen. Orrin Hatch and Rep. Chris Cannon. Passage of the federal legislation would relieve any conflict with state statutes and enable those who seek a college education to reach their goals.

At the very least, lawmakers could hear the people on this issue, the good people of Utah they were elected to represent.