Basham given in-state status
8/19/2005 4:12 PM
By: News 8 Austin Staff
Former Marine Cpl. Carl Basham is a real Texan.
On Friday, Basham submitted "additional documents" to Austin Community College to meet requirements for a waiver for in-state tuition. Basham was granted in-state status.
The school previously denied Basham the cheaper tuition rate because he lived in Louisiana for a year before joining the military.
He grew up in Waco and his parents have been in Austin for years.
He has a Texas driver's license and is a registered voter but all that wasn't enough for the school, following state rules, to call him a resident.
Basham's story inspired massive support from around the country. Many people offered money so that he wouldn't have to pay for school at all.
He's using the experience to develop a scholarship fund. He wants to help veterans facing similar problems.
"There's a lot of individuals trying to get into schools in their home state: California, Illinois is a big one, Texas, probably just this one. Hopefully everything will turn out for the best and it will spread out to other states as well," Basham said.
"The college is not an uncaring college, it's a great college, Carl made a super choice in picking ACC," ACC President Stephen Kinslow said.
Both Carl and Kinslow say they want a new law that would allow U.S. veterans to get in-state tuition, wherever they choose to go to school.
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