House Higher Education Chairman Chuck Martin (R- Alpharetta) went out of his way to tell his committee last week that GOP Rep Kasey Carpenter’s HB 131 would not give Georgia’s illegal aliens benefits unavailable to Americans and legal immigrants. Martin: “…this does not put people that are in the country illegally in front of others.”
Martin referred to an educational email sent to the Republican members of the committee in an effort to create doubt as to its accuracy. He declined to name the sender. I will. I am the sender. He also incorporated a few lines of the bill that have nothing to do with his remarks – which are entirely false. As a matter of fact it’s difficult not to refer to what state Representative Chuck Martin said as an intentional lie. You can see and hear his entire pre-hearing sale speech to the members of his committee here.
- Related: A new ‘gimmick’: College “opportunity tuition” for illegal aliens – Insider Advantage HB 120 (2021)
The legislation serves to lower the existing tuition rates paid by illegal aliens in Georgia’s public colleges and tech schools by dodging the term “instate tuition” and creating a new tier of tuition – they are calling it “Opportunity tuition.” Carpenter tried the same hustle in 2021 when his first two tries at fooling his fellow committee members failed. Illegal alien students who benefit from the new rate would be known as “Opportunity students.” That new rate would only be the sum of the instate rate plus one to ten percent – a huge reduction for the illegals.
American and legal immigrants who live in other states would not be eligible for this lower rate. They would still be required to pay the out of state tuition charge.
The powerful Georgia Chamber of Commerce is pushing for this bill to pass – again.
Enter the liberal AJC with a story today from education reporter Vanessa McCray on the bill and the false assurance from Martin (AJC On Campus: Georgia student loan numbers, DACA tuition bill). McCray and her editors know the illegals would be getting a deal on reduced tuition that a U.S. citizen in Michigan (for example) could not get at Georgia’s Kennesaw State University (for example) but they play along with Martin with the knowledge that any ignorant legislators and/or readers will take Martin’s hogwash as fact. For those in the back: the AJC wants the bill to pass.
We expect Martin to allow a few more days before calling a hearing on the bill to allow the AJC distribution of the misinformation to travel around the state. Dollars to donuts other ‘journalists” will parrot the lie.
This is standard fare for the Atlanta Journal Constitution. They pulled a similar misinformation campaign the last time Carpenter tried to slide his “illegal aliens first” bill through. See here and here as examples. More on the AJC here.
