​We, the undersigned write to request that you schedule the Education Equity Act (S. 654 and H. 1061) for a vote in the Joint Committee of Higher Education immediately before the end of 2015.

This bill would allow undocumented students who are Massachusetts residents to have access to the same resident higher education tuition rates as their peers.

Currently, undocumented students are forced to pay out-of-state or international student tuition rates even though they are Massachusetts residents. In fact, there are some 26,000 undocumented young people in the Commonwealth who, through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, must get a high school education and can participate in the state workforce yet are unable to access higher education because of inaccessible, unaffordable and unfair tuition rates.

Enacting this bill will increase graduation rates for immigrant communities, as has happened in other states. In 2012, undocumented people contributed $196.9 million in taxes back to the state of Massachusetts. With access to higher education, this number is bound to increase.

It is for those reasons and more that 24 states from across the ideological spectrum have already adopted this type of common sense legislation and we strongly urge you to take leadership and schedule the Education Equity Act for a committee vote so that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts can join them.