Thread: Educating immigrants helps N.C., Easley says

The IA hugger Charlotte Observer Fishwrap, aided by it's libidiot opinion columnist Jack Betts, spews out it's propaganda:

Posted on Sun, Dec. 02, 2007
Educating immigrants helps N.C., Easley says
College training for illegal residents makes state stronger, he says
JACK BETTS

RALEIGH --Gov. Mike Easley was fixing a balky toilet at his Southport home on the banks of the Cape Fear River Friday morning when he took a break and picked up the phone. He was ready to talk about a firestorm over a new community college system policy allowing illegal immigrants to enroll if they qualify and pay out-of-state tuition

It's a hot issue. When Easley was in Charlotte Wednesday to announce an economic development expansion, he was asked about that policy, based on a 1997 opinion from his staff when he was attorney general.

Easley said the memo was "misconstrued," but wouldn't say more. The 1997 letter said a community college could not establish additional entry requirements beyond what's in state law -- a student must have graduated from high school or be beyond the mandatory attendance age, two lawyers on his staff had written. The community college system now interprets that memo to mean the state cannot block illegal immigrants from attending.

It resulted in an uproar. Candidates of both political parties are denouncing it. And Mike Easley thinks that's wrong.

Immigration is just a mess, he thinks. Congress has thrust "agonizing decisions that create a lot of hate and anger" on the states by not dealing with the issue directly. As governor, he believes education is the most important way to keep the state competitive. Not giving undocumented immigrants a sufficient education "would sink the state's economy.... The rule ought to be if you come here illegally, you've got to get into school." That would help immigrants become contributors to the economy, not a drain.

That position puts him in stark contrast to the five major candidates running to replace him. Republicans Fred Smith, Bill Graham and Bob Orr, and Democrats Richard Moore and Beverly Perdue all oppose letting illegal immigrants enroll in N.C. community colleges.

Easley thinks whoever wins the governorship -- Republican or Democrat -- will reconsider once in office. That's when the new governor will face the task of how to keep the state's economy competitive with other states -- including Virginia and South Carolina, where immigrants have access to community colleges.

If governors "set a policy that is destined to build a weaker North Carolina," they'll reap the consequences, Easley said. And he added: "This doesn't penalize the immigrants, it penalizes this state and the innocent children."

There aren't many leaders taking the same position. One of them is Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor. Here's what he said Wednesday about illegal immigrants' access to higher education: "In all due respect, we're a better country than to punish children for what their parents did. We're a better country than that." Without education, he added, he never would have been governor. "If I hadn't had the education, I wouldn't be standing on this stage. I might be picking lettuce," Huckabee said.

Former N.C. Gov. Jim Hunt also supports allowing illegal immigrants to study in N.C. schools, but he'd go further than Easley. He backed a bill to allow children of illegal immigrants who graduate from N.C. high schools to enroll in higher ed and pay in-state rates. It ran into flak and went nowhere.

Hunt and Easley, both Democrats, share this, too: They consider education the most important thing the state does to ensure its economic future. In this they carry the banner of the late Gov. Terry Sanford, who built the community college system and is regarded as a transformational education governor.

It shocks no one that Republican candidates oppose community college access for illegal immigrants at any cost.

What's puzzling is why the Democratic candidates for governor, State Treasurer Richard Moore and Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue, think North Carolina would be better off with uneducated illegal immigrants rather than educated illegal immigrants.

If they hope to one day also be known as education governors, they're picking a hard way to go about it. How does restricting access promote education? And why did they decide to make Mike Easley look courageous by comparison?

IN MY OPINION Jack Betts
http://www.charlotte.com/291/story/387696.html

Does Easley send his kids to private school? Even if he doesn't, many of these loony open borders type do.