Props. 107 and 300 Pose Consequences

Among the more than a dozen ballot propositions before Arizona voters this coming November, two may have particular impact on both students and employees of the Maricopa Community Colleges.

Proposition 300 is a referendum that, in part, would amend select provisions of the state’s education code. Those proposed amendments are targeted at college and university admissions and eligibility for adult basic education programs.

The measure would amend statutes governing residency and financial aid for public colleges and universities.

Specifically, new language proposed under Prop. 300 would hold that, in accordance with the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA), “a person who was not a citizen or legal resident of the United States or who is without lawful immigration status is not entitled to classification as an in-state student pursuant to” statutes that prescribe eligibility requirements for residency status.

Under IIRIRA (a federal statute), an “alien who is not lawfully present in the United States shall not be eligible on the basis of residence within a State . . . for any postsecondary benefit” unless a citizen or national of the United States is eligible for such a benefit without regard to whether the citizen or national is a state resident.

Moreover, under the proposed new measure, every community college and university would be required to “report on December 31 and June 30 of each year to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee the total number of students who were entitled to classification as an in-state student and the total number of students who were not entitled to classification as an in-state student under this section because the student was not a citizen or legal resident of the United States or is without lawful immigration status.”

The financial aid provisions of Prop. 300 come in the form of a proposed new statute, A.R.S. §15-1825. This law would preclude a “person who is not a citizen of the United States, who is without lawful immigration status and who is enrolled as a student at any university . . . or at any community college under the jurisdiction of a community college district in this state” from receiving “tuition waivers, fee waivers, grants, scholarship assistance, financial aid, tuition assistance or any other type of financial assistance that is subsidized or paid in whole or in part with state monies.”

Every community college and university would be required under the new law to “report on December 31 and June 30 of each year to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee the total number of students who applied and the total number of students who were not entitled to tuition waivers, fee waivers, grants, scholarship assistance, financial aid, tuition assistance or any other type of financial assistance that is subsidized or paid in whole or in part with state monies . . . because the student was not a citizen or legal resident of the United States or not lawfully present in the United States.”

Finally, Prop. 300 would require that many forms of adult basic education currently offered under the auspices of the State Board of Education would be open “only to adults who are citizens or legal residents of the United States or otherwise lawfully present in the United States.”

While the passage of Prop. 300 would result in amendments to the state’s education code, voter approval of Prop. 107 would effect an amendment to the state’s constitution.

Prop. 107, a citizens’ initiative, would add a new Article XXX, consisting in its entirety of the following sentence: “To preserve and protect marriage in this state, only a union between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage by this state or its political subdivisions and no legal status for unmarried persons shall be created or recognized by this state or its political subdivisions that is similar to that of marriage.”

The Maricopa Community College District, like other public employers, offers domestic partner benefits for its employees. An Arizona community college district is a political subdivision.

Consequently, Maricopa and similar public employers would likely be precluded from offering such benefits if the voters approve Prop. 107 this November.

Published in the Fall 2006 Edition of In Brief