The Kansas House approved a bill repealing the Kansas law allowing illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition at their colleges and universities.
The legislation — advanced by the House to final action Tuesday on a vote of 69-49 — would erase a tuition benefit created in 2004.
The measure now needs to pass the Senate and be signed by governor Sam Brownback.
Rep. Mario Goico, a Wichita Republican who emigrated from Cuba, said the bill would undermine educational dreams of children raised in Kansas.
Goico can empathize with the struggle. He left Cuba in 1961 and made his way to an orphanage in Wichita. He completed high school and worked a series of terrible jobs for seven years to earn an engineering degree at Wichita State University. That led to a 32-year career as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force.
“I know what a difference education made in my life,” Goico said.
