After the DREAM Act died last spring, it seemed little hope existed for kids brought to this country illegally by their parents. Stuck somewhere in between the countries they were born in and the country they grew up in, undocumented students lacked options following high school. This legislative season is, however, offering some surprises, including a little hope.

At least 12 states are considering bills that would provide in-state tuition to resident undocumented students, make them eligible for financial aid, or both. Ten states already allow undocumented students to enroll in public institutions of higher education. Opponents argue fairness and finances.

They say, for example, that it isn’t fair that someone here illegally should get a better rate at an Oregon state school than an American from Wyoming. They are right in noting that out-of-state tuition rates are often at least three times higher than in-state rates. But the difference between the undocumented Oregonian and the kid from Wyoming is that the kid from Wyoming has options. She can attend one of her state’s many fine institutions or she can move to Oregon and establish residency. She could even attend the Oregon school for a year at out-of-state rates and then transition to in-state. With any of these options, our budding Wyoming scholar will have financial aid made available to her. However, the undocumented kid from Oregon will be hard-pressed to find a school anywhere in the country that will take him because even those states that allow in-state tuition for the undocumented have high residency requirements and often require students to graduate from a high school within that state.

Opponents of in-state tuition for undocumented students also cite all the money the state will lose by allowing those rule-breaking border-hopping kids into the system. One problem with their logic is that they assume, if allowed, these kids would pay out-of-state rates for a college education. As much as they would like to, that’s not a possibility for most. So the issue isn’t so much one of universities losing the difference between out-of-state and in-state tuition, but of losing the difference between in-state tuition and no tuition at all.

Another problem with opponents’ arguments is that they depend on their state systems operating at capacity. Many are not. Each new student admitted does not raise the cost of running the system. Professors are paid the same whether teaching 15 kids or 30. This is part of the reason state educators are lobbying for the ability to admit undocumented students. State budgets are facing cuts. If a university can bring in extra students without raising overhead, they won’t have to increase tuition, and they won’t have to cut courses or extracurriculars. One way to enroll those extra students is to allow undocumented students access to in-state tuition.

Admitting the undocumented to our public colleges and universities makes sense – both in terms of fairness and finances. Our institutions of higher education are in the business of educating not excluding. I say we let them get on with their business.