Wake up, California! Dream Act gains headway

This morning's story on NPR highlights recent headway made by proponents of the Dream Act, which is slowly making its way through the state legislature this summer. Currently, legislators are trying to make financial aid for college-enrolled illegal immigrants a possibility. Those without papers who have been enrolled in college for three semesters will qualify for state-sponsored scholarships.



The story profiles the efforts of several students at UCLA who, while maintaining high GPAs, are barely making ends meet while in school; tuition amounts to $4000 per quarter, and the students don't qualify for state-sponsored financial aid because of their illegal status. Having been brought to the states at the ages of 3, 4, and 6, the students say themselves that they are "American in every sense of the word." Yet, though they excel in school, financial aid has never been an option for these three, whose parents are barely making enough to get by and cannot support them.

Now, perhaps California is finally taking its first steps toward ensuring quality education for its hard-working students, regardless of their place of birth.