It was comforting to see so much support among my colleagues for a recent vote by the New Hampshire House to allow in-state tuition rates at public colleges for students who are in the country “illegally.”

In-state tuition at the University of New Hampshire is $13,670, compared with $26,390 for out-of-state students, including international students.

My colleagues are probably partly surprised by the generosity. If anything, the Granite State has been propping up its Live Free or Die mantra lately, for example, allowing guns in more and more places, and steadily cutting higher ed funding, And to be sure, the state Senate is likely to stop the in-state tuition reform in its tracks.

To be eligible for the lower tuition, the immigrant students would be required to attend a New Hampshire high school for three years before earning a diploma or equivalency. And they would have to promise to apply for legal residency.

One former colleague (who has since run into trouble with the higher ed accountability brigades) argued eloquently that Americans had a moral duty to make sure immigrants, legal or not, can get the education they need to contribute to society and the economy, rather than becoming burdens on public welfare and corrections systems.

Empathy with new groups of Americans is one of those mostly progressive impulses that makes me proud to work where I do.