You're kidding right? First off, many of these schools needs a certain number of out-of-state students so they can meet payroll... so you're wrong right off the bat. If you believe otherwise your crazy. Second, this is an INCENTIVE that promotes the unarmed invasion of our country, which is exactly what is going on.
I looked through the various state information I could find on the web, and found no indication that the total number of slots open at the public texas schools for in-state tuition were limited. Doesn’t mean they weren’t, just that I can’t find any indication that Texas schools are full-up and have no extra in-state slots.
Illegals have always been allowed to attend college, so if it was simply “in-state slots”, they could take them anyway. If they were paying out-of-state tuition, they might be counted as “out-of-state” slots so they wouldn’t then take up in-state slots.
The cost is an interesting question as well. If they actually bump other students, so that there is no additional total in-state population in school, then they have no monetary cost, because any student in that slot would have cost the same. If the schools are underpopulated and not turning down any in-state person, then they don’t have a large real cost, since it doesn’t cost anything to put another person in an empty seat (there is an “opportunity” cost if you ASSUME that in the absense of the in-state program, they would have paid out-of-state tuition. On the other hand, if you assume they wouldn’t have gone at all, you might actually LOSE money if you canceled the program, because there would be empty seats where you used to have partially-paying students).
In Virginia, we certainly have a limit; and they somewhat control that by region, so it can be hard to get into some of the schools if you live in a “smarter” part of the state since competition is more fierce. Of course, we don’t allow in-state tuition for illegals.
But not every state has an in-state public system that is so good that people have to fight to get into it. I happen to think that Virginia has one of the best in-state school systems in the country, with several top-20 schools.
I’ve looked at several articles that were complaining about the in-state Texas tuition program for illegals. One talked about lawsuits. In none of those articles did they mention having a plaintiff who was a resident of the state DENIED in-state tuition because all the slots were full. If there was such a person, you would expect the lawyers fighting this would have used them — especially since they tried using out-of-state students and were dismissed because the out-of-state students couldn’t prove any actual harm (since they wouldn’t get in-state tuition anyway).
So, by inference from everything I’ve read, I believe that at this time, the illegals getting in-state tuition are NOT bumping citizens of Texas from in-state tuition. If you find a link showing that they are being bumped, I will be enlightened.