Current Event: Analytical Updated

The U.S. Department of Education has been accomplishing many of its goals since it has started. Currently, they have helped a new act called “The No Child Left Behind Act” which “is based on the belief that setting high standards and establishing measureable goals can improve individual outcomes in education” (NCLB) also have supplied funding and other programs as well. Today there is a new concern about education. A large majority of the Hispanics living in the United States are illegal immigrants and every year an estimated 50,000 to 65,000 illegal immigrant children grow up in this country and attend a school here. In 1982, a Supreme Court decision entitled a free education from kindergarten through high school for everyone, regardless of their legal status. After receiving their basic education and succeeding with the help of the bilingual education programs, many of these students want to graduate from their high school and continue their education onto college. These students are often stopped because now, their legal status matters in college. Because these students are illegal, they cannot provide a social security number which means they cannot quality for financial aid. Financial aid excludes undocumented students, making paying for college much more expensive. Because these illegal Hispanics students can’t afford college and cannot qualify for help, many do not end up going to college. The goal of the US Department of Education, “assuring access to equal educational opportunity for every individual” now conflicts with this problem because without a college education, success isn’t always present. It was present throughout the basic years but now “equal educational opportunity for every individual” isn’t valid when a student is illegal. Now because these students cannot continue their education, they must work; illegally, not have a college education and the pattern would continue for children. Some of the senators recognized this problem and introduced the DREAM Act. The DREAM Act ( The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act) “would permit undocumented students who graduate from high school to apply for legal residency and allow these students to pay in-state tuition at public colleges and universities in their home state.” If this act gets passed, illegal immigrant students apply for legal residency which means they can pay in-state tuition, get the financial help they need, go to college and work legally in the United States. The article “Subsidizing College Tuition for Illegal Immigrants is Just” points out the “the young people at issue did not have a say in the decision to come to the U.S. and it is wrong to hold them fully liable for an immigration status that was derived from their parents.” In other words, if these students want to continue their education onto college, they should be able to and not be punished for their parents’ actions. They didn’t choose to be illegal; their parents’ did. Students like these who have had to “overcome the odds of growing up in tough neighborhoods and impoverished immigrant families to remain in school and yet succeed,” (Subsidizing College Tuition for Illegal Immigrants is Just) deserve the benefits that come if the DREAM Act is passed. But not everyone agrees. The article “Subsidizing College Tuition for Illegal Immigrants is Unfair” explains that (focusing their attention in California), illegal immigrants would get charged less to attend a California public university than any other U.S. citizen who wants to come from another state. Citizens who attend UC for example pay around 4,000 dollars in tuition while out-of-state students pay about three times that for the same education. The article says “becoming illegal he or she can get a huge annual tuition cut of about 11,000 dollars.” Why do illegal immigrants get to pay less when paying less should be a privilege an American citizen should have is the question that gets asked. The article makes a point when it says, “[working families] take out a sizable loan to finance their children’s college education and many of whom will never be able to afford to send their children to college- how can we ask them to subsidize the education of those who should not be in our country at all?” William Gheen, an advocate of stricter immigration controls says the scare education dollars that the states have “should be spent on making college more affordable for U.S. citizens, not illegal immigrants…we need to worry about American students.” This new concern about education for illegal immigrants brings up what the United States responsibility is towards this issue. America has always been viewed by immigrants as a place to aspire themselves and get better opportunities than what they could have received in their native country. They come in search of the “American Dream.” They want a better future, but how can they work towards one if their college future isn’t a promising one?