PBS Newshour Article: "Pursuing Higher Education Without A Social Security Number"

I read the PBS Newshour article “Pursuing higher education without a social security number”, written by Elisabeth Ponsot and watched 2 videos attached to the article reporting on real life examples.  The article focuses on the issues “undocumented” (non-US citizens) face when attempting to go to college without a social security number.  In the two cases highlighted, the young adults were brought to America by their parents when they were extremely young, spent years in public US schools but when trying to get into college ran into numerous issues.  One includes the cost of tuition for undocumented people.  They would not qualify for in-state or out-of-state tuition but would fall under the international tuition bracket, which is extremely high.  The second issue is to try and pay for that higher international tuition, they cannot apply for any scholarships/grants either as they do not have the proper requirements (social security number/license/etc).

This issue has been a government debate as to how best approach this situation.  A fact claim was provided noting that in April of this year 2013, the Oregon governor, John Kitzhabler approved a new law called “tuition equity” which allows those students to be placed in the “in-state” tuition category if they’ve spent a certain number of years in that particular state and in those public schools. However currently not all US states are on board and those decisions have been highly debated as it may seem unfair to those here in the US as true US citizens who do not get that same treatment.  Although not outright stated, I believe the heart of the article had pieces of value claims with a general belief that there should be tuition equity as a means to help children, by no fault of their own, came to the US and have since spent the rest of their lives here.