Community colleges for all

Community colleges were founded to provide low-cost educational opportunities to all citizens within their communities, from young high school graduates working on a college degree while living at home and potential workers getting specialized job training to senior citizens taking a recreational course on needlepoint or crafts. They were not designed to be a battleground over illegal immigration and they are particularly bad as symbols of exclusion.

As the nation engages in an increasingly emotional argument over how to respond to an estimated 12 million foreign workers who are living — and working — in this country illegally, some of the youth of these workers have become victims as well as pawns of the debate. Children brought illegally into the country by their parents have been allowed by federal law to attend public schools, but no law allows them to attend community colleges after they graduate from high school.

As a result, states have varied in their response, some allowing and others disallowing their attendance. In North Carolina, reversing an earlier ruling which excluded illegal immigrants, state Attorney General Roy Cooper said federal law left it up to the states to set their own admission policies. Now the community college system next month will decide whether or not to admit the students.

Public opinion has been hostile to opening community colleges to illegal immigrants, but school officials should take a broader view and open college doors. It is not fair that the sins of the parents be held against their children, especially children who have graduated from North Carolina public schools.

Common sense and self-interest says open admission is the right choice. Denying the students entrance would only interfere with their getting skills needed to hold down productive jobs, but helping educate them will enhance North Carolina’s workforce, expand the base of taxpayers, and keep them off state welfare rolls. With only a few hundred students involved, the students will pose no strain on the community colleges nor will they receive any special favors. Educating them can only help the state.

Illegal immigration is a complex issue, but let’s focus on the adults and stop picking on their innocent children — for the state’s sake as well as theirs.
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