<p>Attached Florida Department of Education webpage states: ‘Financial assistance will not be denied for failure to disclose SSN.’ What’s that mean?</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.floridastudentfinancialaidsg.org/ua/SAWSTUA_Application_Essentials.asp”>Florida Student Scholarship & Grant Programs;
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<p>It means good luck trying to get your scholarship. The SSN is essential for matching high school test scores with your student records, and for matching your Bright Futures Scholarship with your college records. Without it, getting the system to work for you is likely going to be a nightmare.</p>
<p>Yes, aid will not be denied, but you still have to be a “Florida resident and a U.S. citizen or eligible noncitizen, as determined by the student’s postsecondary institution” or your application will not get processed. The new law made them eligable for “in-state tuition rates”, it didn’t make them “U.S citizens or eligible noncitizens” and hence elgible for state funded scholarships. </p>
<p>The SSN is optional for Bright Futures. I never gave it to my daughter’s high school but I did allow her to give it to Bright Futures as they said it would be easier to match up her info (I don’t really see why they couldn’t use her student number).</p>
<p>So far, no problems.</p>
<p>I think it means some undocumented students can get state financial assistance like Bright Futures Scholarships in Florida without a SSN. Might mean more hurdles, paperwork, mailings, etc., without relying on computers doing processing…but can be done, and has been done for years best I can see.</p>
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<p>It means you don’t have to do much to be the PAYEE of gov’t largess. But if u are a law abiding taxPAYER, the gov’t will leave no stone unturned to track u down.</p>
<p>Florida Bright Futures scholarships are funded mostly by state lottery ticket sales. Poor should get a piece of the action back too.</p>
<p>Obviously, we’re not able to deport everyone whose parents brought them here illegally. However, I feel that giving them a free public education is enough. To then expect the same at a public university? Funds are limited, and that means those funds are being taken from someone whose parents perhaps waited, jumped through hoops, and came here by legal means. What’s the purpose of our border? We should just let everyone in who wants a better life? I don’t think we have enough real estate for that? Maybe we could rename our country New South America (since New Mexico is already spoken for). Oh, and what are we to do about repairing our crumbling highway infrastructure? According to CNN, it is falling apart. Maybe we could take some of the money being spent on people who have no right to be here and spend this on our roads so us folks here legally can drive on well maintained roads to visit our relatives who came here legally.</p>
<p>I think most of the voters who are more relaxed on immigration would be thrilled to join with you in supporting a big public works project to upgrade our highways and bridges while providing jobs for Americans. You’ll find you have a lot of company if you get involved in that movement.</p>
<p>The rationale for providing American college degrees to illegal immigrants is beyond my comprehension. There is much debate nowadays about the value of a traditional 4-year college education as it is. I might not object to a solution that provides free laptops and access to online courses leading to a degree for undocumented immigrants. But paying for 4 years of room and board in the dorms and a $200K+ bachelors degree at taxpayer expense is asking too much of us, when so many legal residents are being turned away from their own in-state colleges and can contribute to the economy immediately during college and upon graduation.</p>
<p>Well, until a ‘path to citizenship’ is established, there is no way for them to get a job, open a bank account, repay any loans. California has allowed non-citizens to go to college and at least one to go to law school and become a lawyer, but that is in violation of federal law. I’m not sure if that lawyer can practice in federal courts, but he cannot work for the federal govt. Should they be admitted to colleges to become nurses if they can’t be licensed? Teachers? Should they be restricted to majors that aren’t overcrowded?</p>
<p>It makes no sense to me that they are being trained for jobs they can’t legally hold.</p>
<p>Whoa…no state is offering a free full ride college education to undocumented immigrant students that I know of. Florida’s new law allows some undocumented Florida resident students to legally pay lower instate tuition rates.</p>
<p>Florida governor Rick Scott rejected from feds a couple of years ago about a $2.4 billion gift to build a high speed rail between Tampa and Orlando…it would have provided upward of 20,000 jobs. Other states got the money after his rejecting the dough for rail. Gov. Scott half-heartedly supported the instate tuition for undocumented immigrants and signed the bill into law…go figure.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.tampabay.com/news/localgovernment/gov-rick-scott-rejects-funding-for-high-speed-rail/1151937”>http://www.tampabay.com/news/localgovernment/gov-rick-scott-rejects-funding-for-high-speed-rail/1151937</a></p>
<p>I am a lot more concerned about the huge number of people who will never be functionally literate, financially independent members of society than the few who can both gain admission to and pay for college.</p>
<p>Well, lizard, I am sure you know why he made the decisions he did. :(</p>
<p>I too am worried about the number of people who are not and will not be functionally literate, and who are now being taught in schools with specious views on things like science.</p>
<p>Well you know Sally, teaching someone with absolutely no history of literacy or parental support is very tough and, snark aside, it is a long way from basic literacy to science even being a consideration. It is an absolutely monumental task that will rarely be accomplished at all, but always to very great cost to the immigrants and to the communities receiving them . Not something to be made light of if you haven’t tried to do it or personally witnessed the consequences. What I don’t get is the universal mindset that our culture is better, their cultures are disposable, and their own governments and elite citizens owe them nothing except to take the fruits of their labor and give nothing in return.</p>
<p>The California High-Speed rail has been a huge success! :-bd </p>
<p><a href=“Political Diary: High-Speed Political Reckoning? - WSJ”>http://online.wsj.com/articles/political-diary-high-speed-political-reckoning-1404405611</a></p>
<p>“at least one to go to law school and become a lawyer, but that is in violation of federal law”</p>
<p>What federal law is that? Federal law says almost nothing about education and licensing of lawyers; it’s overwhelmingly a state-by-state issue. It might be in violation of federal law for the lawyer to have a job – is that what you mean?</p>
<p>It will be sad and further complicate the immigration debate in that our politicians, most of the public, and certainly the press will ignore the circumstances noted above by Zoosermom. I haven’t read a lot about this latest farce at the border, but something tells me that Zoosermom is on to something in that this problem is not an organic event. There’s a long history in Latin America of discrimination and abuse of the indigenous population. They are marginalized. Remember the armed revolt in Chiapas, Mexico in the 1990s? That was about Indians. In remote areas some Indians cannot understand or speak the Spanish language. If Indians from Central America are arriving in Mexico now and getting across the border to the U.S., there must be some hidden forces at work. These folks will have a hard time in the U.S. and government officials on both sides of the border know it. Who is benefitting from this event?</p>
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<p>How do u think think lower instate rates are possible? Taxpayer subsidy.</p>
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<p>CA provides the same FA to illegals that it does to legal students (which is 100% for low-income students, but includes fed Pell grants and loans). They are about to close the Pell/fed loan gap for illegals with this bill: <a href=“UC sponsors bill to close financial aid gap for undocumented students | University of California”>http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/uc-sponsors-bill-close-financial-aid-gap-undocumented-students</a></p>
<p>Undocumented immigrants residing in Florida pay sales taxes same as everyone else. No one pays personal state income taxes in Florida…Florida’s constitution prohibits personal state income taxes in Florida.</p>