More difficulties, fewer dreams in the wake of the Dream Act

Students at colleges and high schools all over the country are facing new challenges after the Senate failed to approve the Dream Act on December 10, 2010. Those students who had previously "come out" about their illegal immigrant status now have to live in constant fear of being deported, says Maricela Aguilar, a junior at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin whose own struggle is profiled here in the New York Times.

Nor is the road toward achieving legal status in any way clear for these students. What's more, some states - like Georgia, Virginia, Arkansas, Nebraska, Indiana, and Wisconsin - are considering banning illegal immigrants from attending public universities or simply denying in-state tuition rates to illegal immigrants, thereby making it too expensive in many cases for the students to attend college.

It's a shame to deny United States classrooms in high schools and colleges the intelligent input of some young minds simply because their parents shirked immigration officials fifteen or twenty years ago. The students themselves, like Aguilar in the article mentioned above, or Jose Varible, a student in Kenosha, Wisconsin, have grown up in the states and possess the curiosity and intelligence that make them valuable contributors to college and high school campuses. It's up to the House and Senate to decide whether these kids stay or go in the long run. In the latter case, it's going to be our loss by far.

To further discuss the future of our nation's education, join the conversation at the Tutorpedia Foundation's 2nd Annual Benefit on February 23, 2011, featuring speakers Vicki Abeles, the director of Race to Nowhere, Dennis Littky, co-founder of the charter school network Big Picture Learning, and Farb Nivi, founder of the educational tech company Grockit. All proceeds go to support personalized tutoring for the Bay Area's low-income students.