Our parents taught us at an early age that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Unfortunately, it looks like the parents of the bill sponsors of SB126, a bill to provide “unsubsidized” in-state tuition to illegal immigrants, never taught them the same lesson.

Minority Leader Mike Kopp pointed out the two most glaring issues with this bill in an Op-Ed in the Pueblo Chieftain on Sunday: the sham of “unsubsidized” in-state tuition and the fact that it would effectively end out-of-state tuition. 

The most intellectually dishonest part of the bill is where it stipulates “unsubsidized” in-state tuition. That's logically impossible. In-state tuition is lower because the cost difference with the out-of-state tuition is covered by taxpayers. Free lunch does not exist. Someone has to pay for it. 

After tax “fairness” and now “unsubsidized” in-state tuition, we think it's time the Democrats fire their pollster. They're fooling no one with such poorly thought out messaging.

Beyond intellectual dishonesty, if the bill were to become law it would violate federal law and force all public Colorado universities to offer in-state tuition.

“SB126 clearly violates existing federal law, which stipulates that if you grant in-state tuition to an illegal alien, you must also grant that same tuition to all U.S. citizens, thereby effectively abolishing out-of-state tuition.”

You think we have a budget deficit now. This would make our financial woes worse than MC Hammer.

Beyond the policy implications of such a terrible bill, the optics look terrible to the people of Colorado. At a time when millions are being cut from the higher ed budget, voters will not be pleased with a bill that spends more to cover illegal immigrants. 

So let us get this straight — Democrats want kids from Wyoming whose parents pay taxes to pay out-of-state tuition, but illegal immigrants paying no income taxes should get a subsidized education? Democrats would probably call that tuition “fairness.”

Plain and simple — this is a bad bill, poorly sold and even more poorly thought through.