Tuition

I feel sorry for students at the University of Maryland School of Law. Dean Karen Rothenberg oversaw the largest tuition increase in the school's history. Now, thanks to the legislative audit reported in The Sun, the students learned that $410,000 of that increase was used for "questionable payments" to Dean Rothenberg (" Ex-dean of UMB law is audit target," Feb. 20). That's roughly $500 from each of the school's 830 students, many of whom are struggling to make ends meet. I hope the new dean will be more considerate in how she spends students' money.

In your editorial "College bound, but undocumented" (Jan. 24), I found several rhetorical sleight of hand tricks that need addressing. First, by requiring the children of illegals to pay out-of-state tuition, we are not telling them "they can't go to college," as the editorial states, only that they will not enjoy discounted rates. Second, you clearly imply that without a college education, those children will be consigned to a life of "day-laborers, cooks and janitors.

I was shocked and dismayed to read your editorial on in-state tuition for undocumented aliens ("A flawed compromise," March 7). According to your editorial board, grandstanding politicians cannot come up with one legitimate reason to oppose this bill. I've got a reason for you: We can't afford it. There are single moms in the state of Maryland who now have to give a portion of their child support back because the state cannot afford to subsidize them any longer. I have overcrowded schools in my district (such as Stoneleigh Elementary)

It is against the law for someone who is here illegally to pay taxes. It is against the law for someone to use the Social Security number of another to pay taxes. Yet one of the items of the new proposed bill to give in-state tuition to illegal immigrants requires that they or their parents had to have paid taxes for the last two years. This means that either they or their parents are not only here illegally but paying taxes illegally. And how are they able to do this? Is anyone researching whether a stolen Social Security number has been used?

Students at growing Howard Community College in Columbia are facing the second tuition increase in as many years next fall, after college trustees unanimously approved a $4-per-credit boost for the budget they will submit to County Executive Ken Ulman. The increase, double the $2-per-credit rise approved last year, was approved without discussion at a brief board meeting Wednesday night at the college, though board Chairwoman Kathy Rensin said it was discussed at length at a work session in January "We have been discussing it for a while, wrestling with it with it — trying to put it off," Rensin said after the vote.

The state university system's Board of Regents approved a 3 percent tuition increase Wednesday for most in-state students, bringing a routine close to a budget process that was briefly thrown into chaos by the General Assembly's inability to agree on a spending plan. Though the university system received $5.3 million in cuts in Gov. Martin O'Malley's proposed $2 billion operating budget for 2013, the trims were not deep enough to force a change in the planned tuition increase. "It's a small enough number that I think the campuses will be able to absorb it without any significant impact to student services or to academic quality," said Chancellor William E. Kirwan of the cut. System workers will not face furloughs, Kirwan said, though most salaries will remain frozen aside from a 2 percent cost-of-living increase scheduled to begin Jan. 1. The presidents of each campus will decide how to implement the cuts.

A Baltimore City Community College employee has been indicted on allegations that she directed student tuition payments into her personal bank account, the city prosecutor's office announced Thursday. Michelle Campbell of Waldorf was indicted by a city grand jury on 13 counts charging her in a scheme that prosecutors say netted about $8,000. State's Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein will personally prosecute the case, his office said in a news release. According to the state's attorney's office, Campbell worked as an administrative assistant at the school's Lombard Street campus, where her job included helping students register for courses that would lead to certificates in jobs such as pharmacy technicians, nursing assistants and teaching assistants.

The debate over a state law that would provide college tuition discounts to some illegal immigrants shifted to an Annapolis courtroom Friday. Attorneys for the law's supporters told an Anne Arundel County Circuit Court judge that the Maryland Constitution bars a November referendum challenge. The law is about funding state government programs, and appropriations measures are not subject to referendum, they said. But those backing a petition drive calling for a referendum said the measure does not deal with funding.

"A nation without borders is not a nation. " — Ronald Reagan Legal immigration plays a key role in building our nation and deserves our full support. But today we are facing rampant illegal border crossings that have a high cost to our state and nation. According to a report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, in Maryland alone we are paying $1.4 billion per year for costs associated with illegal aliens, such as K-12 education, health care costs and incarceration.