Tuition politics

AN HONEST difference of opinion is one thing. Exploiting a hot-button issue for short-term gain is another.

Just a month ago, on Aug. 15, Chris Gabrieli told Globe editors he did not feel strongly about the issue of giving favorable in-state tuitions to illegal immigrants seeking to attend UMass and other public colleges. While he wouldn't propose it, Gabrieli said, ``I never say I'm actually against it." If the Legislature approved it, he added, ``I have not said I'd veto it."

His rationale: ``I wish those kids would get the education, and I do feel they're caught in between." But there is a political problem for Democrats, he added. ``Putting that out on our forehead is some kind of suicide impulse" suggesting that ``our priority is to fund a group of kids whose parents are here illegally."

One month later, Gabrieli is trying hard, in public appearances, debates, and paid advertising, to brand the issue on Deval Patrick's forehead as an example of why Patrick is ``out of the mainstream."

But is that so? Politically, Patrick is joined by Tom Reilly, no wide-eyed liberal, in supporting in-state tuition . S ubstantively, the issue involves a small number of young people, perhaps 200 to 400 . They have graduated from high school, qualify for college, and are residents of Massachusetts -- they certainly aren't residents of any other state or country. Yet they face a gap of as much as $10,014 between in-state and out-of-state tuition next year at UMass-Amherst. The great majority of these young students are poor. The effect of the current policy is that most don't go to college at all. This is not good for them or the economy, which depends heavily on foreign workers, as Gabrieli well knows.

Illegal immigration is a serious problem. The answer is more border control and more opportunities for citizenship, as contained in the Kennedy-McCain bill, which Gabrieli supports. But his recent campaign tactics could come from someone wanting to rebuild the Berlin Wall on this side of the Rio Grande.

Educating young people and strengthening the economy are not out of the mainstream. There is another phrase for convincing the public that worthy children shouldn't be caught in between: political leadership.