The Crash Course in Citizenship; A new front line in the immigration debate: access to higher education

While a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision entitles illegal immigrants to a free education from kindergarten through high school, neither Congress nor the courts have figured out what to do with the estimated 65,000 undocumented immigrant students who graduate from high school each year once they decide to attend college. A proposed federal law called the Dream Act would enable undocumented students who have attended U.S. schools and met other conditions to gain legal status and qualify for some student aid.

Playing Political Football

A number of community college presidents statewide say their institutions should not be involved in illegal immigration politics.

"As an educator, it's difficult to deal with the politics because we're in the business of teaching students. Community colleges are not the immigration police. That's not what we signed on to do," says Wake Technical Community College President Stephen C. Scott, who is also the president of the North Carolina Association of Community College Presidents.

Scott adds, "All community college educators are in this business because we want to help adults learn and improve their lives. One of the things that bothers me, if the INS [now Immigration Customs Enforcement] is not able to control the problem, how in the world do you expect a bunch of underpaid teachers in the community college system to solve the immigration issue?"

Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College President Betty Young expresses similar sentiments.

"The issue of immigration is not an issue to be addressed in the admissions offices of community colleges across this country," Young says. "Immigration is a national issue; we need national policy and leadership to determine what is in the best interests for our country, and then we need to carry out that policy, and we have failed to do that," she adds.

Nevertheless, Perdue's chief of staff, Don Hobart, says the lieutenant governor feels strongly that state residents who cannot work legally should not be allowed to enroll in public colleges.

"While education is one of the worthiest goals of state and local governments, it is hard to justify the expenditure of state funds to train workers who cannot reasonably expect to remain in the country, let alone the state," Hobart says.