Miklosi, JoeIt turns out that former Governor Bill Owens, a conservative Republican, isn’t the only one with a soft spot for kids who work hard in school but have trouble getting into college because their parents emigrated illegally. Now, state Representative Joe Miklosi, a Denver Democrat, wants to offer those kids in Colorado a guarantee: If they work hard in school, they will receive the same in-state tuition as their peers. It’s neither a new, nor a radical, idea, he tells The Denver Post: A majority of states allow it. “We’re talking Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas,” Miklosi says. “These are states where the Republican business leaders go to the [state] senate president and speaker of the [state] house and say, ‘We need a more educated workforce. Can you please pass this bill?'” Next year, Miklosi will introduce the “Workforce Development and Unsubsidized Tuition Act,” which he says has bipartisan support among community leaders. Earlier this year, Miklosi’s bill to allow in-state tuition for kids who attended a Colorado high school for three years was killed, as many such efforts have been in the past, including at the national level. Colorado House Minority Leader Mike May, a Parker Republican, predicted next year’s measure will die, too. “We’ve got enough budget trouble without this,” May says. “I know they make claims it doesn’t cost any extra, but it does.”