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August 22, 2005
Austin Community College Confirms Iraq is the 51st State
Via Thought Crimes, comes a sad tale of a Texas Iraq veteran whom Austin Community College is forcing to pay out of state tuition costs because he's been an out of state resident. Former Marine and Texas-born Carl Basham has been deployed in Iraq. The story is here.
Marine doesn't qualify for in-state tuition WTEA News (Austin)Former Marine Carl Basham remembers his two tours in Iraq like yesterday.
"Three mortars every single night that were landing within a couple feet of your living area. Pretty scary," he said.
When he enrolled at Austin's Community College to become a paramedic, they told him he'd have to pay out-of-state tuition, because of his time in the military.
"Any time that a student leaves the state of Texas, moves into another state, resides in that state, enters into the military in that new state, and claims that new state as their permanent home, then they loose their Texas residency," ACC spokesperson Veronica Obregon said.
"We've explored every option for him. And we are still willing to work with him, if he can provide any evidence that shows that he is a Texas resident," Obregon said.
His drivers license, voter registration and the Austin American-Statesman say Basham is a Texas resident.
As Thought Crimes blogger David Allen asks, "Why does Texas hate our troops?"
Hint to local pols: this would be a great issue to demagogue on!
Posted by Bucky at August 22, 2005 05:44 AM | Permalink
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Comments
Is Iraq the 51st state or is Israel the 51st state?
It's so hard to keep these 51st states straight.
Posted by: Laurence Simon at August 22, 2005 09:00 AM
What about the UK? Does that count as one 51st state, or four?
But keep an eye on Hawaii, or we might be down to 49 again:
Posted by: Michael Chappell at August 22, 2005 10:07 AM