Colorado Attorney General John Suthers has made the right decision.

In an opinion issued Tuesday, Suthers said that, yes, children who are citizens of the United States can receive in-state tuition from the state's colleges and universities, even if their parents are in the country illegally, as long as the children meet residency requirements.

As for those requirements, Colorado law merely stipulates that the parents of an unemancipated student 23 years old or younger prove they have established a home in the state. To do this, they need only show they have resided in the state for one year. As Suthers affirms in his opinion, "Under Colorado's current statutory system, an undocumented alien can establish domicile in Colorado."

Suthers' opinion came in response to a request for clarification of the law from state higher education chief David Skaggs. Some institutions of higher learning had been denying in-state tuition to these students since the passage in 2006 of a law that kept "certain public benefits" from anyone 18 years of age or older unless they could prove lawful presence in the United States.

In championing in-state tuition for these students, we argued last week that any U.S. citizen is, by definition, always lawfully present in the United States. We're pleased that Suthers agrees.

Now, perhaps, we can get down to the business of providing these young citizens with the sort of education that will prove beneficial not just to them, but to Colorado and America, too.