Governor Rick Scott signed a bill on Monday granting in-state tuition to undocumented students. It allows students who have attended a Florida school for at least three years before graduating to pay the lower Florida resident rates for college.
Rolando Cordova just graduated from Wolfson High School in Jacksonville. His family came to the US from Lima, Peru 12 years ago.
He’d hoped to attend the University of Florida to study biology but couldn’t afford the high cost of out of state tuition. He says the bill’s passage marks a historic moment for undocumented students.
"Now we have the chance to get a higher education", Cordova said. "Now we don’t have to worry about paying out of state tuition… which you know… many of us can’t afford. Especially since we can’t get any federal aid and we have to rely on private scholarships… which in itself is pretty hard to get.”
The current in-state rate is one-quarter of what out-of-state students pay.