“Higher education must be within the reach of every American.” These were the words spoken by President Obama in his State of the Union address Tuesday evening. Taken literally, it would seem that the president was voicing support for those who oppose immigration reform legislation such as the DREAM Act (emphasis on “American”). But he quickly made his point clear, going on to say
Today, there are hundreds of thousands of students excelling in our schools who are not American citizens. Some are the children of undocumented workers, who had nothing to do with the actions of their parents. They grew up as Americans and pledge allegiance to our flag, and yet they live every day with the threat of deportation. Others come here from abroad to study in our colleges and universities. But as soon as they obtain advanced degrees, we send them back home to compete against us. It makes no sense.
Our nation’s education policies were also in discussion here in town. Last Friday the Levine Museum hosted a panel to go along with their “Courage” exhibit, focusing on race relations and the future of education. Janet Murguía, president and CEO of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), attended the event. Spanish-language newspaper Hola quotes her as saying;
Hemos podido ver en las ceremonias de graduación que cerca de un 50% de los estudiantes que dejan de estudiar son latinos o afroamericanos. Esta cifra debe alarmarnos porque se verá reflejada en la competitividad del país globalmente…
Todos debemos reconocer que la educación es un derecho civil en nuestro tiempo. Esto requiere que todos juntos trabajemos con los gobiernos y los sistemas escolares para mantener las mismas oportunidades para todos los estudiantes.
[Translation] “We’ve seen, in graduation ceremonies, that almost 50 percent of the students that leave school are Latino or African-American. This statistic should alarm us because it will be reflected in the country’s global competitiveness.
We should all recognize that education is a civil rights issue in our time. This requires that we all work together, with governments and school systems, to provide the same opportunities for all students.”
Watch the rest of Obama’s thoughts on illegal immigration and education here
Read Murguía’s thoughts on the President’s speech here
This article appears in Jan 25-31, 2011.
Ms. Camilo,
I’m going to assume that your English is good enough that you can understand this quote from YOUR OWN COWORKER TARA SERVATIUS in THIS WEEK’S CREATIVE LOAFING:
We spend $10,393 per pupil at mostly minority, low-income Thomasboro versus $4,406 at Ballantyne Elementary. CMS spends $8,377 at high-poverty Sedgefield Middle versus $4,014 at low-poverty Community House Middle.
“Equality in education”? You’d have to double spending at “white” schools to get there.
Education is not a civil right. It is in the public’s best interest to have some level of education for all citizens.
You also cannot force people to learn. There are plenty of kids at these bad schools that do well. Why do they do well? I think it has to do with culture and the parents that raise the kids.
Also what does it matter if they go home to compete against us or stay here and compete against us? If people from other countries pay for an education here in the states then it is their biz what they do with it. My wife decided to stay stay here in the states but it’s her education not the state’s.
You would be amazed at how many or our grad students are not American. When I was in grad school 80% of the students were from India, 10% from China and maybe 5% were American. This was true for all difficult subjects. The easy Majors had a higher percentage of Americans.