By Andrea Gregory

Somerville legislators are speaking out on behalf of a new proposal that would allow the children of illegal immigrants to pay in-state college tuition. While some argue lacking legal citizenship should not afford them the luxury of a cheaper education, a new study suggests it could have benefits for the commonwealth.

Extending in-state tuition prices to the children of illegal immigrants is expected to generate an additional $2.5 million for the state, according to a study that was approved by the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education last week.

The issue has come up before. About a year ago a bill to allow the children of illegal immigrants living in Massachusetts to pay in-sate tuition prices for state colleges passed in the Senate but failed in the House. Now that the Board of Higher Education has given its stamp of approval to a report on the matter and the commonwealth is faced with a financial incentive, some of the old stigmas might be dropped while legislators in the House and Senate both consider two new proposals.

There are two similar bills before lawmakers. Neither bill allows students to receive financial aid if they are illegal immigrants. The House bill requires the college students to seek citizenship. The Senate bill does not place the requirement on the children of illegal immigrants enrolled in state colleges.

“I think people here are very data driven,” said State Rep. Denise Provost (D-Somerville). “To the extent people have hard information to the consequences I supposed that some people could change the minds of some.”

Provost said the fact that opening up in-state tuition prices to Massachusetts children of illegal immigrants will generate revenue rather than cost the state is an interesting piece of the puzzle.

“The claims that this was going to cost the state money, cost the taxpayer’s money were unfounded. We wanted to set the record straight. We wanted to clear up the misinformation,” said Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Tax Payers Foundation, whose research was incorporated into the newly approved study. “The point is this is a net gain for the commonwealth.”

Widmer said the main thing to keep in mind is that there is a large population of potential students that could take advantage of the law change. His research predicts about 500 new students would attend a state school if in-state rates applied to them. He said those potential student are already living in the Bay State and have or are attending high school. The students who would take advantage of the possible change would be spread across the 28 state colleges. It is not expected that they would create any overcrowding in the classroom or take away space from legal citizens who meet college requirements, according to the findings.

“It’s a matter of fairness and good public policy,” said Widmer.

If Massachusetts does adopt new legislation, the students affected by the change would not have to pay out-of-state fees. It would make about a $30,000 difference over a students four-year college career.

There are ten states that are allowing students of illegal immigrants in-state tuition rates. California, Illinois, New Mexico, New York, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas and Washington all have similar laws in place to the proposals pending in the Bay State.

‚ÄúIt would be a good thing for our state and our students,‚Äù said Sen. Patricia D. Jehlen (D-Somerville).  ‚ÄúWe have many students who are immigrated. We have some that are undocumented. These kids are here. They didn‚Äôt come here on their own. Most of them will be living here, wouldn‚Äôt it be better to have skilled and educated workers in the commonwealth?‚Äù