College Board Supports Education For Children of Illegal Aliens
Written by Matthew C. Keegan // 04/23/2009 // College News // 11 Comments
College Board, which is an organization founded in 1900 to help students make the transition from high school to college, has weighed in on of the most important, if not controversial topics of our day: higher education for children of illegal aliens. As the developer of important college entrance exams such as the SAT, the College Board has an influential position in this debate, one that they are now championing on the behalf of affected high school students.
Tens of Thousands of Undocumented Students Poised to Graduate
According to the College Board, more than 65,000 undocumented students who have lived in the United States for at least the past five years will be graduating from high school this Spring. Most of these students who wish to go onto college will find these doors shut thanks to current rules regarding undocumented students.
Roberto G. Gonzales, an assistant professor at the School of Social Work at the University of Washington in Seattle, is leading the charge on behalf of the College Board, saying that the denying students access to college is a humanitarian and civil rights issue in addition to being an economic one. Gonzales takes to task the argument that opening up opportunities for undocumented students will limit opportunities for citizens.
Federal law doesn’t disallow children of illegal aliens to attend college. However, the current status for undocumented college students is often unclear with hurdles being set up which makes it more difficult, if not impossible for students to be admitted. In addition, most states refuse to grant in-state tuition rates for these students citing their illegal entrance into the country as reason to withhold subsidized financing as well as financial aid.
College Board President Gaston Caperton said, “The College Board is working to remove the barriers to a college education for all students. Undocumented students deserve the same chance to go to college and fully participate in our society as other students. The DREAM Act would provide a way for them to fulfill their dreams and legally contribute to U.S. society. We must not turn our backs on these deserving young people.”
Not Everyone Supports the DREAM Act
While the DREAM Act has been introduced and rejected several times, opposition to granting special rights to children of illegal aliens comes from a number of different quarters of society including from a public policy organization called NumbersUSA. That nonpartisan organization is behind an effort to maintain an environmentally sustainable as well as economically just America.
NumbersUSA opposed the first introduction of the DREAM Act in 2007 and has taken note of the current push to see that legislation is passed by Congress and signed by President Obama to open up the educational opportunities for undocumented students.
Chain Migration and the Competition For Jobs
According to Roy Beck, author, lecturer and executive director of NumbersUSA, opening up the door to these students would work against people born in the United States as well as against naturalized citizens. New grads would compete for already scarce jobs while opening the door for relatives of these students to also pursue educational and job opportunities in the US (chain migration).
With DREAM amnesty, as many a half-million students would gain entrance to college with perhaps three to six times that number of their relatives allowed entrance into the country. According to Beck, those people would compete with Americans struggling to find work, further exacerbating problems for citizens who are attempting to find work.
DREAM Act proponents believe that an educated undocumented student workforce would benefit the economy, while barriers to education would have an adverse impact on society in the form of lower wage earners and people working below their capabilities.
Sources:
Gonzales, Robert G. “Undocumented Students and the DREAM Act.” College Board 2009 Web.22 Apr 2009. <http://professionals.collegeboard.com/policy-advocacy/diversity/undocumented>.
Beck, Roy. “A Test To Determine If DREAM Amnesty Sponsors Are Serious About Helping Illegal Teens, Or Do They Just Want To Hurt Americans?.” NumbersUSA March 31, 2009 Web.22 Apr 2009. <http://www.numbersusa.com/content/nusablog/beckr/march-30-2009/a-test-to-determine-if-dream-amnesty-sponsors-are-serious-about-helping>.
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11 Comments on "College Board Supports Education For Children of Illegal Aliens"
Any where in the world, no body should stop children from education. What makes us any different from TALABAN if we deny education to any body. There is lot of hippocritisem among us, when it comes to immigrants. We forget we were all were immigrants once, other than Red Indians. Even hispanics were here in SW before we stole there land also!!!!!!
“hippocritisem”? “stole there land also”? It looks like Frank Vito himself should go back to school. Maybe while he is there he can study the basic ideas of the Constitution that say we all must obey the law. If you are an interloper you have no right to be here, much less a right to an education at my expense.
Anyone who give support to illegal immigrants over ‘legal’ immigrants is by definition a criminal assisting to destroy the legal system that was in place for so many years. My own grandparents who originated from the bottom rungs of China from the late 1940s to the early 1960s SAVED just to get us a legal green card and then more than a decade later finally received a CITIZENSHIP card. Tell me to those PEOPLE who WANT to COME here through ILLEGAL means have MORE rights than a legal citizens and legal immigrants? I HARSHLY discredit ANY of you who support and aid illegals for WHATEVER reason it may be. That means I SHOULD ADVOCATE TO ALL OF MY friends BACK IN CHINA to go THROUGH the PATH THAT ILLEGAL SHOULD TAKE!! Maybe I should ENCOURAGE ALL ASIANS TO COME THROUGH HERE ILLEGALLY!!!
Please go to your legal home and dream your dream, don’t stay here illegally and ruin mine. Or become a legal citizen, speak, read and write English and pay your taxes please. Obamma and Arnold know we are in need of some $$$. Sorry, no more handouts, try Canada.
What are laws for? If we start ignoring the laws of our country by allowing illegal aliens to continue to live in the United States, much less pay their schooling, we might as well get rid of all our laws and live in chaos. If people want the freedom of the United States they should become legal citizens, learn our language and accept our laws! If they refuse, send them back to the country they came from. My LEGAL college age children have to get loans, which hang over their heads for years, in order to go to college. We are middle class citizens, therefore we make too much for college assistance but too little to send our children to college without borrowing money. It is a terrible thing when LAW BREAKING people have more rights and assistance than honest, hard working UNITED STATES CITIZENS! We obey the laws yet we are the ones who pay the price for the law breakers.
.-= Linda Moore´s last blog ..CLS: Jigsaw =-.
I hear you, Linda. It is frustrating when middle class Americans who are trying to earn a living and working diligently to raise their kids can’t get help while kids of illegals get a free pass.
I believe that a backlash is brewing, a political one at that, where Americans will band together to make changes that are fair and that will stick. I can’t wait for that to happen!
I completely understand that laws are being broken when entering and staying in the US illegally. But I also have compassion for thet 2 year old that was bought here and had no choice. That child knows no other way but the american way he/she was raised. Is it the child’s fault their parent broke the law and put them in such a precarious position. What about the child?
I feel for the child, but my children were born overseas and came here legally. At some point the parent’s choice has to impact the children and I don’t believe that cash strapped states should be made to pay for these mistakes.
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