Breaking: Colorado Advances In-State Tuition For Undocumented Youth
As both sides of the immigration debate line up on the firing lines innocent lives lie between. Today, the Colorado Senate passed legislation which will give undocumented youth a chance. Senate Bill 126 will give children of undocumented immigrants in-state tuition rates, but nothing else.
While federal law requires all children attend school under the decision of Plyer V. Doe, after graduating from high school all bets are off. Immigrant youth who were brought to the US by their parents and have lived in Colorado nearly all of their lives are simply out of luck. Assuming Colorado colleges admit them at all, the youths must pay out-of-state tuition rates. They are not eligible for scholarships. That puts college out of reach of most children of undocumented youth. They are mostly from poor families who barely pay basic bills, must less can afford send their children to higher education at out-of-state tuition rates.
Such cold realities ensures poor people stay poor. Statistics show youth who are victims of poverty do well when sent to college. It is a chance to break the chain of poverty handed down from one generation to the next. Many youths who go to college work hard to pass the opportunity along to their own children, hence improving society. Sadly, for undocumented youth, such dreams remain the luxury for others.
Since most youth were not old enough to understand the gravity of crossing the border without inspection, they become victims of those who insist on denying the youth of undocumented immigrants opportunities as a way of getting even for the acts of the parents of the youth. The children of undocumented immigrants are the poorest of the poor, and then are left in a virtual state of hopelessness without the youths doing a single thing to deserve the treatment.
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