Charlotte Observer continues it's incessant drumbeat for illegal aliens, still refuses to print opposition articles and letters:


EDITORIALS
Facts, please

Lancaster, Bowles, Easley show leadership on immigrants
North Carolina's reputation as a progressive state is being tested right now on a question of moral leadership. Three men -- Gov. Mike Easley, Community Colleges President Martin Lancaster and UNC system President Erskine Bowles -- are standing up to the test in ways that recall the state's admirable restraint back when rabble- rousers in other Southern states were fostering anger and hatred. Other leaders have been silent.

The issue is how North Carolina's institutions of higher learning will treat people who live in this state but are not U.S. citizens. Most of them are the children of illegal immigrants. They had no choice about coming here. The question is whether they will be able to continue to attend schools in the N.C. community college and University of North Carolina systems.

About 340 students now attend community colleges at out-of-state rates that, the system says, cost students about $2,000 more than it costs the state to provide those services.

UNC officials say they know of 20 such students who attend UNC schools and pay sharply higher out-of-state rates, exceeding the cost by more than $3,100 in the most recent fiscal year.

Out of a total community college and university system enrollment of roughly 1 million students, the best estimate is that there are a few hundred illegal immigrants -- perhaps one tenth of one percent of the total student population. They pay out-of-state rates that provide the state more revenue than their instruction costs.

Gov. Easley has accurately blamed Congress for failing to secure the borders and reform immigration policy. But he has also refused, as he put it, to "grind my heel" in the faces of the children of illegal immigrants. He believes they should be required to go to school to become productive taxpayers rather than a burden. This logic makes good business sense.

President Lancaster takes a similar view. In an essay on the facing page, he adds, "No potential worker of tomorrow must ever be consigned to the desperation that comes from ignorance and inability to obtain rewarding employment."

And UNC President Bowles, who says he's "furious" over Washington's failure to deal with immigration reform, does not believe in punishing the child for the sins of the parent. "If they are not educated, we run the risk of creating another permanent underclass. Without education, they will become a drain on society," he notes.

That's why the UNC Tomorrow Commission recommended Thursday studying whether undocumented students who graduate from N.C. high schools and otherwise qualify for admission should be allowed to enroll at in-state rates. Until the commission gets all the facts, he adds, he will make no recommendation. That's appropriate.

Gov. Easley and Presidents Lancaster and Bowles have stood up for an enduring North Carolina value: access to education is the key to our future. More power to them.
http://www.charlotte.com/171/story/397463.html