Democrats push immigrant tuition break bill

TALLAHASSEE (AP):

Two Florida Democrats are sponsoring a bill to guarantee a tuition break to the children of immigrants in the country without permission.

Senator Dwight Bullard, D-Miami, and Republican Victor Torres, D-Orlando, are filing bills that would offer in-state tuition rates to certain children of immigrants, as long as they attended a Florida high school for three years and had graduated.

Bullard called it "absurd" to charge certain students more for college.

Last year, the Florida House passed a bill to change state law to mirror a federal court ruling on tuition rates.

That ruling concluded the state could not charge higher tuition rates to Florida residents who are United States (US) citizens but dependent on parents in the US without legal permission. The Florida Senate refused to take up the bill.