From the debate on a bill to allow children of immigrants who attend Connecticut high schools for four years and then graduate to pay in-state tuition at public colleges and universities - transcript of the Connecticut House of Representatives - May 17, 2007:

REP. SAWYER: (55^th)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just one point of clarification. It was just released in the news. The issue by the Chairwoman from Higher Education said that there was not closure to the seats in the CSU system, and it was just released to the newspaper that Southern has closed their acceptance of applications because it is so competitive this year.

I can tell you, I don't have the numbers on that, but I can tell you at UConn last year, for 3,200 freshman seats, there were 22,000, 22,000 applications. That's how competitive it is at UConn.

And only 2,000 or so of those seats, Mr. Speaker, are for in-state tuition. About 1,200 of those seats are for out-of-state students.

So for our in-state students, I'll try again, in-state students, 22,000 of those, some of those are our own, they have great competition. And now there is, we are finding the same thing at Southern.

And we know the numbers have gone up dramatically at Eastern and Western, as well as Central. But I'll tell you the story that swayed me because I have always been such an education proponent, Mr. Speaker.

And I am such an advocate for all levels of education that I was stopped in my tracks when a family in my District said to me when this Bill was advertised out in the media quite heavily, that they were very angry because they were immigrants.

But they were legal immigrants, Mr. Speaker, and they have been working very hard for the last seven years to obtain U. S. citizenry. And they have worked very hard in keeping their family together.

They have devoted, and I always use the word devoted very seriously, Mr. Speaker, here in having all of their children get the highest amount of education that they possibly can. And in one case, Mr. Speaker, it is for a Master's degree. That child is looking to go on to get their Doctorate.

So, Mr. Speaker, they came to me and were very upset because they felt that they had done everything right. They had worked very hard. They had followed all the rules. We've heard the description of how many hoops that immigrants when they come to this country have to go through in order to obtain status.

I guess I would also like to echo Representative Hetherington's thoughts that as we look towards the U. S. Senate and the House, they need to come up with, certainly an agreement on their legislation for it to become law, as well as to have the President sign it, Mr. Speaker, and it is troublesome to me that at the end of this particular Amendment that it does not conform to federal law.

So at this time, unfortunately, though I support education for as many students as possible, Mr. Speaker, I will not be supporting this.