Markeshia Ricks Photo
Clergy lead a prayer circle on the first floor of the Legislative Office Building Wednesday.
Hartford—“Dreamers” —children born to adults living in the U.S. without legal permission — gathered with clergy at the state Capitol Wednesday to call on the legislature to pass a bill that would open a pool of student-generated financial aid to the undocumented students that help pay for it.
This is the fifth year that organizers from CT Students For A Dream have pressed lawmakers to allow undocumented students who have not had access to federal and state financial aid to allow them to have access to a pool of funds to which they contribute — institutional aid. They’ve drafted a petition to encourage support.
New Haven State Rep Juan Candelaria said at Wednesday’s gathering that allowing dreamers access to the aid that they help fund is the right thing to do and this legislative session is the right time to do it.
“When we talk about higher education, it should be a privilege,” he said. “It should be a right. This bill gives every student regardless of immigration status the right to attend college. These are the dollars they pay from their own tuition fees that other students are benefiting from but yet, they don’t have the opportunity.
“We’re not using taxpayers’ dollars,” he added. “These are dollars that the students invest themselves and they should be given the opportunity to reap the benefits.”
Pastor Abraham Hernandez, executive director for the Connecticut Chapter of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, said that faith communities see barring undocumented students from receiving institutional aid as a “noticeable flaw that must be corrected.”
“We issue a clarion call to both Democrats and Republicans in the state of Connecticut to pass HB 5031,” he said. “We’re at a time in our history where we have a unique opportunity to exemplify true bipartisanship.”
Click on the Facebook Live video below to watch the full press conference.
The 2018 Agenda
| Bill # | Status | Summary | Sponsors |
|---|---|---|---|
| HB 5001 | In Committee Died on the Floor | To impose a fee on transactions involving virtual currency. | Pat Dillon |
| HB 5031 SB 4 | In Committee Committee Approved Sent to the Floor Passed Gov. Signed | To allow students to have equal access to institutional financial aid. | Higher Education and Employment Advancement Committee |
| HB 5082 | In Committee Committee Approved Died on the Floor | To provide state funds to assist hurricane victims from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands who are living in Connecticut. | Juan Candelaria |
| HB 5126 | In Committee Died on the Floor | To increase funding to boards of education and family resource centers that provide assistance to students and families from Puerto Rico. | Juan Candelaria |
| HB 5112 | In Committee Sent to the Floor Died on the Floor | To permit the retail sale of marijuana and tax such sale to raise revenue for the General Fund and to fund substance abuse treatment, prevention, education and awareness programs. | Juan R. Candelaria, Angel Arce, Josh Elliott, Steven J. Stafstrom, Jeff Currey, Susan M. Johnson, Chris Soto, Patricia A. Dillon, Roland J. Lemar, James M. Albis, Christopher Rosario, Kim Rose, Robyn A. Porter, Edwin Vargas, Matthew Lesser, Gregory Haddad, Joshua Malik Hall, Ezequiel Santiago, Diana S. Urban, Toni E. Walker, Robert Sanchez, Alphonse Paolillo |
| SB 1 | In Committee Died on the Floor | To expand the sick leave program to provide earned family and medical leave to certain individuals employed in this state. | Martin M. Looney, Bob Duff, Timothy D. Larson, Steve Cassano, Beth Bye, Terry B. Gerratana, Gary A. Winfield, Ted Kennedy, Catherine A. Osten, Marilyn V. Moore, Edwin A. Gomes, Mae Flexer |
| SB 62 | In Committee Died on the Floor | To provide tuition-free community college for Connecticut residents. | Martin M. Looney |
| HB 5182 | In Committee Committee Approved Sent to the Floor Died on the Floor | To require building officials in certain municipalities to establish and assess a fee for the commencement of certain work without a necessary permit. | Planning and Development Committee |
| HB 5210 | In Committee Committee Approved Sent to the Floor Passed | To (1) mandate insurance coverage of essential health benefits, (2) expand mandated health benefits for women, children and adolescents, and (3) expand mandated contraception benefits. | Insurance and Real Estate Committee |
| HB 5084 | In Committee Died on the Floor | To encourage the recycling of nip bottles that otherwise frequently litter urban areas. | Roland J. Lemar and Juan R. Candelaria |
| HB 5350 HB 5537 | In Committee Committee Denied Sent to the Floor Died on the Floor | To create a pilot program for shared solar facilities at municipal airports. The bill also would delete the provision that dictates the length of Tweed Airport’s runway. | Energy and Technology Committee |
| HB 5475 | In Committee Committee Approved Sent to the Floor Passed | To amend statutory provisions concerning a police officer’s viewing of a recording from body-worn recording equipment under certain circumstances. | Judiciary Committee |
| HB 5515 | In Committee Committee Approved Sent to the Floor Passed | To permit a zoning commission to regulate the brightness and illumination of advertising signs and billboards. | Judiciary Committee |
| HB 5540 | In Committee Committee Approved Sent to the Floor Died on the Floor | To ban guns without serial numbers and regulate those which are sold in a form requiring the purchaser to finish assembly or that are homemade and to permit local authorities to interview immediate family members as part of a determination of an applicant’s suitability. | Judiciary Committee |
| HB 5542 | In Committee Committee Approved Sent to the Floor Passed | To ban the sale or transfer, possession, manufacturing or use of bump stocks or other accessories to increase the rate of fire of a firearm. | Judiciary Committee |
Seriously, anyone getting aid, legal or illegally resident here, is not contributing to the aid pool. Those students, or their parents, paying the full tuition are paying for aid for other students. Moreover, every student at a state school, even those paying "full" tuition, room and board, are getting a huge subsidy from the state's taxpayers, which fund a large portion of the state schools' budgets.