Dare to DREAM? Expect to Wake Up to a Nightmare

Feb 20 by Elissa Roberson

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Why do people with ethnic backgrounds scream “Foul!” and people in high positions of power jump on the issue “to protect their rights,” yet ignore the needs of law-abiding citizens?  Today, there is a new kind of discrimination looming in this great nation. With the implementation of the California DREAM Act (or the Equal Opportunity Act), citizens have been grossly violated and subjected to discrimination.

In a nutshell, the bill provides financial assistance for higher education here in the Golden State to undocumented immigrants who have been in the United States illegally by exempting them from paying the out-of-state tuition fee. Aliens who have attended high school for at least 3 years in the U.S. would be granted amnesty. On top of that, illegal immigrants would be eligible for all student financial aid (excluding Cal Grants). Read it for yourself :

“Existing law requires that a student, other than a nonimmigrant alien, as defined, who has attended high school in California for 3 or more years, who has graduated from a California high school or attained the equivalent thereof, who has registered at or attends an accredited institution of higher education in California not earlier than the fall semester or quarter of the 2001–02 academic year, and who, if he or she is an alien without lawful immigration status, has filed a prescribed affidavit is exempt from paying nonresident tuition at the California Community Colleges and the California State University.”

If you think that’s bad, community colleges -  along with Cal State and University of California schools – are required to create programs specifically designed for these new applicants:

“The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions.”

In other words, forget the state and national debt; let’s just add another welfare program!  Whoever came up with this idea needs to be slapped with a newspaper and an Economics book. But let’s take a step back, shall we?

Some of you may find this piece of legislation to be vaguely familiar. The California DREAM Act was inspired by a bill at the Congressional level, albeit one that failed to pass in the Senate. The original DREAM Act (which really stands for the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act of 2009) called for all states to grant amnesty to illegals who have been in the U.S. and attended grade school for at least 5 years. This Congressional bill would ultimately:

“…amend the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 to permit States to determine State residency for higher education purposes and to authorize the cancellation of removal and adjustment of status of certain alien students who are long-term United States residents and who entered the United States as children, and for other purposes.”

Is anyone else noticing the term “or for other purposes”?  Sorry. I forgot I need to be more trusting of Big Daddy Government.  After all, how can one not trust a bill when the signatures stamped on the parchment are those of Dick Durbin, Harry Reid, Leaky Leahy, Joe Lieberman, a Kennedy, and Russ Feingold?  They are certainly no strangers to Congressional idiocy and media gaffes. But we won’t go there.

Now, back to the present day.  In my research, I was unable to find statistical data showing how much money the state would be appropriating for this bill.  And good luck trying to figure out how much funding is going towards education (and from where these funds are being pulled) for the state of California. From this, one can understand the implications surrounding this bill and its toll on California’s college students and taxpayers.

If you want an idea as to how difficult it is to be a college student in America today, check out Ron Meyer’s interview on the Youth Misery Index — he explains what college students are to expect once they graduate.  Lump that with the tuition hikes Californians had to endure within the last few months at both the university and community college levels, as well as the difficulty finding jobs in California. Can you say, fiscal insanity?

Moreover, community and state colleges in California already see many students wait-listed and struggling to get into classes required for their majors. I would know. I live here.

Now, unlike liberals, I’m going to assume my readers are smart by simply telling you to use common sense when considering this national misery index. Now, lump this with California’s problems involving illegal immigration and exorbitant taxation in the state alone. Get the picture?

It is undeniable that there will be less space in classrooms for legal citizens in California’s schools. In truth, granting financial aid to non-citizens in a state where the debt is already disastrous (on top of a national economic plunge) and the current drug/border wars wreak havoc on Californian land is simply idiotic and insensitive to residents. Putting another field on college applications that law-abiding citizens, who dream of attending a school in my beautiful state, can’t fill out is discriminatory and completely awry of what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they wrote “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”.

Dare to DREAM? Prepare to wake up to a nightmare if this ever passes in Congress.

Elissa Roberson :: College of the Desert :: Palm Desert, California :: @ElissaRoberson