Undocumented immigrant students will be eligible for in-state tuition at public colleges and universities in Maryland after voters there overwhelmingly ratified a state law at the polls on Tuesday.
With 84 percent of precincts reporting just before midnight, 58 percent of voters answered “yes” on Question 4, while 42 percent voted against the measure that grants in-state tuition rates to undocumented students, the Associated Press reported.
Maryland voters were the first in the nation to go to the polls to weigh in on a statewide measure that will lower the financial barrier to higher education for undocumented students who came to the United States as children and meet certain conditions.
The Maryland Dream Act was approved by state lawmakers and became law in 2011, but was challenged by Republican opponents who collected enough signatures to bring the matter before statewide voters in a referendum on whether to keep the law or repeal it.
Maryland’s law—one of roughly a dozen similar measures in states—requires potential beneficiaries to first attend community college as one of the conditions for receiving in-state tuition.