This is such an emotional topic and a very good one at dinner parties. Imigration is what this country is founded upon. I am second generation. My grandparents arrived and registered legally from Ireland, Italy, Brazil and Poland without a penny in their pockets. They get so very frustrated and upset about all of this because they HAD to learn English to survive and attend school. There were no assistance programs, translators, government support, etc. Two have undergrad degrees. They worked several jobs, went to school full time and graduated in four years. One was a prima ballerina in NYC and one worked in a factory for 32 years. If we moved to any other country in the world we would be expected to learn the language ASAP. I truly feel that our government is too accommodating.
Are there no colleges or universities in the countries of origin of these ILLEGAL ALIENS?
Nothing like comprehending what you read is it Nic? Otherwise we'd be lost without it.
You're use of the word comprehension is getting old. What I saw in the post mentioned "child" or "kid". That to me signals someone who was probably born here. Does my previous post make some sense now?
There are children of American citizens who do not have access to higher education. To offer it to people who are in this country illegally when American citizens can't enjoy the same benefit is a travesty.
Who doesnt have access to higher education, and why?
People who can't afford it?
Higher education is not cheap and not everyone qualifies for loans or grants. I didn't qualify for anything my freshman and sophmore years and it was almost cost prohibitive--and can often be for non-traditional students as well as traditional students whose parents make too much money for them too qualify for any sort of aid but to little money to send them to school. I was lucky in that my fiance's parents were determined that I should be able to go and loaned me the money.
Most people are not so lucky.
There is tons of aid out there for people to go to school. I went to a school with a lot of low income minority people, and everyone that put the effort and wanted to go to school did. I never heard of anyone who had the desire and dedication to go to school not being able to get in.
Theres more of a problem getting people to want to go to school. Or keeping them from being discouraged from going to school because they think they can't afford it or they didnt understand the processes.
People who wanted to get their education, but needed to do it the cheap way took classes at a community college to get their general ed. out of the way.
Its easy to get AT least the books paid for through financial aid(if you qualify), especially if youre buying used. And classes are only 20 dollars/ unit. So its a little more than 200 bucks for a full load of classes.
I wasn't aware of how to get financial aid which could have really benefitted me, so I paid everything myself..which wasn't even all that bad with a slightly more than minimum wage job I had at the time. I only worked a lot more hours at a different job because I wanted more spending money and moved out right after high school(didn't have my priorities straight for awhile).
And college loans are pretty easy to get. They give them to pretty much everybody.
I dont buy that any American simply "can't" go to college. Maybe not straight to a university, maybe having to spend the first couple years in a boring community college, maybe ending up with some debt, but where theres a will theres a way.
Things are even better now than decades ago, because colleges are reaching out to different demographics, and once underrepresented kids are getting educated on all the aid thats out there for them.
Yes, low income minority people being the operative word here.
Being a low income white person doesn't qualify you for too much help unless you have a child under 18--my only saving grace. Otherwise, all I'd qualify for are loans that have to be paid back and I've got those aplenty as well.
The competition for scholarships is fierce and no matter how good your GPA, there's always somebody out there with a better one and there are only so many scholarships to go around.
This is a battle that I am fighting right now and I am in school with other people who are fighting it as well. If it were as easy as you suppose to achieve higher education, everybody would be doing it. I know I would have done it much sooner in my life but I had to get to a point of semi financial stability before I could do so. Many people are in the same boat.
In a nutshell, at its simplest terms, this is the whole reason for the anger we see. When the day comes that every single American who WANTS to, can walk in and receive a college education, THEN we can discuss "giving it away" on a humantarian, case-by-case basis, as a nice 'gesture', to those who have no legal right to it.
(non-citizens) that our own members (citizens) can't get.
You don't buy shoes for the neighbor kids, while YOUR kids are running around barefoot.
I went to school with low income minorities, but white people aren't exactly being shunned from school.
There's a lot of reasons why 'everybody isn't doing it'. Some people just aren't up to 4-6 more years of school, people are intimidated by college, people are intimidated by the processes to get money.
At the very least, an associates at a junior college is EXTREMELY easy to get. I got it on accident.
Unless someone can't work, theres no real reason they can't get their AA, or even their Bachelor's. And if they're handicapped to where they can't work, I'm sure they'll get aid for that as well.
And I'm not takling about scholarships. Low income minority or low income white, race doesn't affect your qualification for financial aid, its all about the income. I don't buy poor white people being turned away in favor of minorities.
And loans are worth it. You pay back at a minimal interest, and if youve gotten your degree, you have a much better shot at getting a job to pay them back.