NEWS ABOUT TEXAS COLLEGES
Austin American-Statesman
www.statesman.com
January 18, 2008 - The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and the state's public colleges and universities should have resisted a state attorney general's ruling that excluded certain military veterans from a program that waives veterans' tuition, according to an advocacy group.
The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund sued the coordinating board, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Houston and other schools in June for withholding the state's Hazlewood Act tuition exemption from veterans who were not U.S. citizens at the time they entered the service. Denying the benefit to veterans who were legal permanent residents when they enlisted amounted to a violation of the U.S. Constitution's equal protection clause, MALDEF argued.
This week, days after the group and six Gulf War veterans asked a federal judge in San Antonio for a preliminary injunction granting the benefit, the state backed down.
Attorney General Greg Abbott, whose office had issued two opinions on which the coordinating board rule was based, withdrew those opinions and agreed that the restriction was unconstitutional.
Hundreds of veterans, perhaps more, have been wrongly denied free tuition, said David Hinojosa, a staff attorney for MALDEF, who called on colleges to reimburse the veterans for tuition already paid. He said the colleges and the coordinating board should not have followed the attorney general's interpretation.
"They got to pick their poison: be sued by veterans because they were discriminating against them or go by the standard practice and follow these rules and procedures because that's just how things are done," Hinojosa said. "For them to have ignored our U.S. Constitution is just incredible."
De Juana Lozada, a spokeswoman for the coordinating board, said in a statement: "We followed the attorney general's opinions because, as a state agency, we believe we are obligated to do so."
Patti Ohlendorf, vice president for legal affairs at UT-Austin, said the school is "constrained to follow coordinating board rules," adding, "We are pleased with the outcome."