WTF is wrong with Tuition Equity opponents?
Posted in Uncategorized on 19. Mar, 2009
Well, as of this writing, Colorado’s Senate Bill 170: Nondiscrimination in Higher Education Funding, is floundering in the Appropriations Committee. Depending on how you look at this, it’s either a good thing or a bad thing. Personally, I think this is a good development, because it’s going to be seen just how little this bill is going to cost the State of Colorado: $0.
What does the State have to gain? Well, if you multiply the number of people who will suddenly be able to afford tuition by even just the cost of a year’s tuition at a community college, well, you can see the benefit immediately. These are dollars that would not normally be funnelled into the educational system, and I think that this influx of cash, however small, is something we can’t afford to turn down in this time of state budget cuts.
Why is tuition equity important? Because it’s the just thing to do. Children that are brought across the border are just as much at the mercy of their parents’ decisions as children born into families that reject modern Western medicine. We cannot ignore the reasons why their parents are here: a lot of low-paying, menial jobs that Americans simply won’t do are too plentiful. I fault unscrupulous business owners, a too-low minimum wage and lack of benefits for even the lowest-tier American worker, our ravenous consumption as a society and an immigration system that is just flat-out broken. It’s our societal greed that has created this situation in which the most plentiful jobs are the least lucrative for Americans.
It’s amazing, however, how completely illogical some of the opinions against Tuition Equity can sound. Listening to a caller talking to David Sirota as he guest-hosted for the recovering Jay Marvin on AM760 the other day, I was astounded to hear a conservative call in and posit that personal responsibility was required for young people graduating from high school; that once a person turns 18 they “have some decisions to make.” The insinuation was that young people need to be responsible for their legal status. I was stunned to hear this comment from an otherwise lucid person. Doesn’t he know that you can’t even begin the legalization process until you’re 21 years old?
To expect a high-school graduate to all of a sudden begin their legalization process is ludicrous, not in the least because of the age requirement to even begin to apply. The current system requires a person oftentimes to apply for residency from the other side of the border. Imagine what that means. A young immigrant likely doesn’t even speak or write or read Spanish properly (it’s true!), and worse, they likely have never even met their relatives on the other side of the border. They’ve spent their entire young lives trying to be as American as possible…they can’t even drink the water over there! Is it humane to expect this young person to pick up and move to a place they don’t even know just to satisfy some conservative draconian attitudes?
You know what happens to young people that are idle? They get into trouble. Do we really want idle young hands to go back over the border and possibly get mixed up with the narcoterrorism that’s going on across the border? How different is this from the disenfranchisement young American citizens in urban areas face, with diminished school resources and at-risk lives? Seems that if you’re Hispanic, either born here or not, you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. You can’t be educated no matter what you do.
Of course, my comments here are generated from my deep frustration at the lack of compassion my countrymen and women are showing toward those who are no different than me. But Progressive America, you have to understand that we Hispanics feel these issues deeply, and when you don’t belly up to the table and fight alongside us, we get the message loud and clear that we’re only as good as a vote. But let your abdication of your place in this debate keep on guiding you. When it’s time for gay rights, or reproductive rights, or any other part of the progressive agenda, you won’t have Hispanics to push the agenda along.
Had it not been for Hispanics turning out in twice as many numbers to vote for the Democratic ticket as for the Kerry election, Colorado would not be the vibrant azure hue it is today. You want your progressive agenda? You want your Democratic Party candidates elected? Get on board with us and help us. It’s not so much the conservatives that are the issue. It’s you, our fellow Democrats.
Get on board!
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