It was only at the end of my first year teaching (tenth graders) that I realized that some of my best students were undocumented immigrants who would face even greater challenges in terms of paying for their college educations. A friend of mine told me about the Dream Act, which creates paths to legal status (through education or military service) for young immigrants brought to this country when they were 15 or younger. Although it doesn’t qualify them for Pell grants, it would allow undocumented students to get funding through work study or student loans.

Anyway, it was defeated Wednesday when it only got 52 of the 60 votes needed to proceed with debates in the senate. For shame, all the senators who voted against this. Please explain to my fourteen year old star math student how she should return to Ecuador (to live with whom, I wonder, since her family is here) rather than attend college here where she has worked hard and achieved real academic successes.

Here’s the article from the times: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/25/washington/25immig.html?ex=1351051200&en=7b4a0e20f0aced7f&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

I’m also including an editorial by Lawrence Downes about the word “illegal” and how pernicious it is in the context of immigration debates. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/28/opinion/28sun4.html?ex=1351224000&en=f410db8004fe520b&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink