The new Ohio state budget has some interesting components, but most important for college students is the effect it could have on both tuition rates and voting rights. Republican Gov. John Kasich released his budget on Feb. 12, and legislators have been debating it since. A proposed amendment would require public universities that issue students a letter or utility bill for voter ID purposes to grant those students in-state tuition. Critics charge it would prompt Ohio’s universities to stop issuing the documents to prevent the loss of the tuition revenue. “This is another attack on Ohio voters,” State Rep. Kathleen Clyde (D-Kent) told The Plain Dealer. “This provision will make it very difficult for Ohio’s universities to help students vote. I think it’s outrageous. The problem, if we have one, is that not enough students are voting.” Proponents of the bill say it’s about getting students better tuition rates, rather than suppressing their voting rights.
“If people are given the right to vote in Ohio, they should also be granted in-state tuition rates,” said Mike Dittoe, a spokesman for House Speaker William Batchelder (R-Medina), adding the concern was “woefully misguided.”
Clyde plans to propose an amendment that would strip the provision from the bill.
In 1979, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Symm v. United States that discrimination against college students seeking to vote in their college communities is a violation of the 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Full Article: Well Ohio, That’s Questionable – Campus Progress.