Educators and students in Georgia have established an “underground railroad” to higher education for those students who don’t have access or are barred from attending the public institutions of the state.

For the past three years, Freedom University has been educating those students who co-founder Betina Kaplan said have “emerged from the shadows.”

Kaplan, a professor of romance languages, helped found the institution after the Board of Regents, the governing body of the public university system, barred students without legal documentation from having access to in-state tuition. 

“The classes we teach aren’t for credit, but they offer a chance for students and professors of all backgrounds to come together and participate in a collaborative experience,” Kaplan said.

Now hosting two classes per semester, Freedom has offered classes in ethnic studies, gender relations, American civilizations and Latin-American literature and culture.

In Georgia, the Board of Regents has banned students of undocumented status from attending the top tier of universities altogether, which includes institutions such as the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Georgia at Athens, Georgia State University, Georgia College & State University and Georgia Regents University.

Jeanette Cuevas, program director and volunteer coordinator of Freedom University said the program has been able to open doors for students who otherwise would have been left behind.

“Our students come from a very diverse group of all racial and ethnic backgrounds,” Cuevas said. Students come to this environment after some have lived in the shadows and are able to come here and feel safe and learn not just subjects but to build a community.”

Miriam Zuniga, now a freshman at Whitman College, a private-liberal arts college in Washington, is the proud product of Freedom University. Zuniga graduated from a public Georgia high school, but because of the high cost and inaccessibility of higher education in Georgia, attended Freedom University first.

Zuniga said with the help of the staff at Freedom University, she was able to apply and gain acceptance to a wide range of schools, eventually settling on Whitman which offered her a full scholarship. 

According to Kaplan, the out-of-state cost for an in-state community college in Georgia during two years would amount to more than $20,000.

According to Cuevas, Zuniga, among many of her current and former classmates have been advocates in their community, not only for accessibility to higher education, but also comprehensive immigration reform at both the state and federal levels.

In June 2012, President Barack Obama issued a directive to the Department of Homeland Security stating that the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service would stop deporting certain people without documentation if they immigrated illegally as children. The memorandum is referred to as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

Currently, DACA students in Georgia are suing the Board of Regents to gain access to in-state tuition rates. Students argue that they are eligible for in-state rates due to the law.

A 2009 Georgia law prohibits anyone without “lawful status” from attending institution of higher education, but later modified to only include the upper tier of schools. However, all other institutions were required to charge out-of-state tuition.

The Georgia Board of Regents, which oversees student eligibility and tuition rates, subsequently adopted a policy that requires all Georgia public institutions to verify “lawful presence of all students seeking in-state tuition.” The court will decide if lawful status is different from lawful presence. After the Department of Homeland Security announced the DACA program in August 2012, the Board ruled that DACA recipients would not be eligible to attend or receive in-state tuition.

The lawsuit is being brought on by Charles Kuck, an immigration lawyer who represents the DACA students. According to the Atlanta-Journal Constitution Kuck said the decision made by the Board of Regents was issued before the executive order was signed by the President announced that DACA recipients had a lawful presence. 

“If someone has lawful presence in the state and in the United States, they are allowed to get in-state tuition,” Kuck told the Atlanta-Journal Constitution.