Marco Antonio Firebaugh, a former California Assemblyman, died on Tuesday March 21 at the age of 39 after a long illness. His obituary can be found here.

Firebaugh was chair of the Latino Caucus and majority leader in the Assembly before being termed out in 2004. He had planned on running for Senate this year.

He was a UC Berkeley graduate in 1990 and spent time as a staffer for Richard Polanco before embarking on his own political careeer.

Firebaugh's legacy includes AB 540, which granted in-state tuition to undocumented students who had graduated from California high schools. Prior to his legislation these students would have been treated as international students at California colleges, and would have been subject to out-of-state tuition. At the University of California that amounts to an additional $17,800 per year in tuition and fees.

The legislation was the subject of a lawsuit filed in December by 24 out-of-state students.

Firebaugh's legislation simply acknowledged that a student who had gone to school in California for three years was in fact, an "in-state" student. Undocumented students are still not eligible for financial aid, grants, or loans. In my work with high school students I had the unfortunate experience of explaining to students that they would not be able to afford college. Firebaugh's work mitigated some of those costs.

I had a chance to meet Firebaugh in 2004 when he spoke to a group of high school students I worked with. Even though he was suffering from his illness, I was impressed with his energy and charisma. His light shone brightly for the short time he was on earth.