LITTLE ROCK, Ark.
When Joyce Elliott pushed for extending in-state tuition to the children of undocumented immigrants four years ago, she had a lot of factors on her side.
No House members spoke against the proposal that she sponsored as a state representative, and she had the strident backing of a governor who pushed for it to include a scholarship portion.
Now the Democrats’ leader in the Senate, Elliott is ready to revive the fight that she lost over the tuition bill in 2005. The senator from Little Rock has again proposed allowing any student who has attended high school in the state for at least three years and has a diploma from an Arkansas school to pay in-state tuition.
Elliott acknowledges that getting the measure through the Legislature won’t be easy. A number of factors show it’s probably impossible.
But she doesn’t seem to care.
“I think we’re in the Legislature to lead as well as represent, and to me to lead doesn’t mean you wait for a favorable climate,” Elliott said. “If we do, I think the sacrifice could be too great.”
