A controversial measure to allow some undocumented students to avoid nonresident tuition rates at UW System and Wisconsin Technical College System schools was passed on a party-line vote. (Budget paper 812)

The provision allows for in-state tuition rates for people who graduated from a Wisconsin high school or received a GED from this state, have been in the state for three years after their first day of attending a Wisconsin school or prior to their receipt of the GED, and have filed to be a permanent resident.

Rep. Colon said that the policy, which has been killed in previous budgets, always "incites a lot of imagination." But he said critics have their "heads in the sand" need to realize that immigrants are in Wisconsin, and their children need to be educated.

But Rep. Vos said that with the current state fiscal situation, it isn't a good time to be providing a benefit to a new group, and he said that people who are here illegally shouldn't enjoy the same benefits that legal immigrants and law-abiding citizens enjoy.

A motion to dump the provision failed 4-12 on a party-line vote, and the provision was then adopted when no other motions were offered.

-- By Greg Bump