Shika Dalmia explains how the Texas governor can answer for his in-state tuition policy in economic terms (according to the WSJ, "state tax officials estimated that increased college enrollment by illegal immigrants would be budget neutral"):
In-state tuition is not a welfare program. … Public universities are supported by the taxes of state residents—legal and illegal. In-state rates are simply an acknowledgement of the fact that residents have already pre-paid part of the fee when their children go to college. Asking any resident, regardless of status, to pay the full tuition would be requiring them to pay twice for the same service. Yet this is precisely what denying unauthorized aliens in-state tuition does.
Matt Lewis suggests that Texans are more tolerant than the country at large.
The Dish 