You asked a number of questions related to the postsecondary education of immigrant students. Your questions and the respective answers follow.

How many Connecticut high school graduates are immigrants?

According to the National Immigration Law Center, high schools in the United States graduate approximately 65,000 immigrant students. However, after checking the most obvious sources (including the Connecticut State Department of Education and the U. S. Department of Education National Center for Education Statistics) we were unable to find statistics on the number of immigrants that graduate from Connecticut high schools. Generally, the graduation data from various sources tends to be broken out by race/ethnicity and gender, but not immigrant status. The closest indicator appears to be the number of limited English Proficiency (LEP) students that graduate from high school. The graduation rate is an indicator for the federal No Child Left Behind Act, however, graduation rates broken down by subgroup (including the LEP subgroup), will not be available until the State Department of Education publishes data for the class of 2006.

While there doesn't appear to be any available data on the precise number of immigrants graduating from Connecticut schools, the fiscal note for House Bill 6793 (2005) does provide some insight. The bill would have made eligible for in-state tuition anyone, other than a nonimmigrant alien, who: (1) graduated from a Connecticut high school; (2) attended any educational institution in the state for at least three years before seeking in-state tuition status; and (3) was seeking admission to, or was a student at, UConn, one of the Connecticut State universities, or a community-technical college. The associated fiscal note estimated that the number of students taking advantage of the reduced tuition rate could be as high as 200. (However, it should be noted that the bill as drafted could have also applied to citizens who attended school in Connecticut, e. g. private school students. )

What is the status of the federal DREAM legislation?

The proposed DREAM (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) Act would amend the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 to repeal a provision that denies an unlawful alien's eligibility for higher education benefits based on state residence unless a U. S. national is also eligible no matter where he resides. It also authorizes the Secretary of Homeland Security to cancel the removal of, and adjust to conditional permanent resident status, an alien who: (1) entered the United States prior to his or her 16th birthday, and has been present in the United States for at least five years immediately preceding enactment of the act; (2) is a person of good moral character; (3) is not inadmissible or deportable under certain provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act; (4) at the time of application, has been admitted to an institution of higher education, or has earned a high school or equivalent diploma; and (5) from the age of 16 and older, has never been under a final order of exclusion, deportation, or removal. The bill also sets the conditions for the conditional permanent resident status.

The proposal was initially introduced by the 107^th Congress in 2001. It was reintroduced in the Senate in November 2005 and approved by the Senate Judiciary committee in 2006 as part of a comprehensive immigration reform package. A House version of the bill, known as the American Dream Act, was initially introduced in 2001 and reintroduced in 2006. It has been referred to several committees for review.

What is the state share of costs at public institutions?

According to the Connecticut Public Higher Education 2006 System Trends report, the state share of per-student education and general expenses at the University of Connecticut is 52 % of $ 24,347, 50 % of $ 16,761 for the Connecticut State University system, and 65 % of $ 12,474 for the Community-Technical College system. For the purposes of the report, “education and general” expenses include expenditures for instruction, research, public service, academic support, library services, student services, academic support, library services, student services, institutional support, physical plant operations and maintenance, and student aid.

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