Wanted: Straight talk on immigrants and college

Perdue, McCrory won't own up to facts on a sticky issue


Posted: Wednesday, Oct. 01, 2008

Washington's pitiful failure to reform immigration has left the Tar Heel state facing sticky questions. One of them: whether to allow undocumented residents to enroll in community colleges and universities so long as they pay higher, non-resident tuition.

The biggest question is not whether adults who broke the law to come here ought to go to public colleges. It's whether graduates of N.C. high schools who were brought here as young children by their parents should get access to higher education.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama delved into that N.C. issue in an interview with WUNC radio this week. Obama said he favored allowing illegal immigrants to enroll in community colleges.

His clear, cogent explanation made us wish the two candidates seeking to be the state's next governor, Democrat Bev Perdue and Republican Pat McCrory, had the political will to show the same kind of leadership.

“For all practical purposes, they are an American kid and for us to deny them access to community colleges, even though they have never lived in Mexico … or Poland … is to deny that this is how we've always built this country up,â€