Educating illegal immigrants in North Carolina community colleges

Gov. Bev Perdue and Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton are weak leaders for disagreeing with the decision to permit illegal immigrants to enroll into any of North Carolina's 58 community colleges.

Politicians should want what is best for the state.  Allowing illegal immigrants to enroll in community college is the right and fair choice for a more educated and productive society.  The tuition rates that illegal immigrants must pay will create a profit.

Illegal immigrants must meet the college admission standard to enroll.  An 18-year-old illegal immigrant who graduated from high school should not be considered ineligible for community college because of his residency.  The decision to admit illegal immigrants only applies to those that are illegal because their parents entered the country illegally.  Stuart Fountain, chairman of the policy committee said, "The children of parents who came into the country illegally shouldn't be punished for the federal government's failure to deal with their legal status."

If children and education are indeed a top priority in North Carolina, then Perdue and Dalton would without question agree with the new policy.  

Perdue and Dalton seem to both be afraid of North Carolinians who are opposed to illegal immigrants' rights.  Perdue has only a 27 percent approval rating.  According to a survey from a Raleigh-based Public Policy Polling, Perdue had a 44 percent approval rating in March 2009. 

Illegal immigration is a legitimate issue; however, the numbers of illegal immigrants are decreasing.  

According to the Pew Hispanic Center the number of illegal immigrants in North Carolina has declined since 2005 from 375,000 to 350,000.  The illegal immigrants of North Carolina only make up 3.8 percent of the population.  A report by the Federation for Immigration Reform estimates there are 120,000 children of illegal immigrants in North Carolina  enrolled in public schools.

Politicians who oppose the legislation allowing illegal immigrants to enroll in community college fear an increase in competition on crowded campuses and in the workforce.  U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., of Charlotte said, "Our community colleges are supposed to educate and train American citizens to enter the work force. But North Carolina wants to educate and train illegal immigrants so they can directly compete against American citizens for the same jobs? That is just plain wrong." According to the Pew Hispanic Center illegal immigrants only account for 5.3 percent of the state's workforce. 

Allowing illegal immigrants to enroll in community college does not create an issue of space on crowded campuses.  Under the new policy, illegal immigrants will only be allowed to take classes if there is enough space for them after legal U.S. students are enrolled. Also illegal immigrants do not qualify for financial aid.

Dalton issued a statement saying that colleges cannot afford to educate illegal immigrants in this weak economy. However, community colleges such as Forsyth Tech that will allow illegal immigrants to attend their schools will make them pay out-of-state tuition at a rate of more than $7,000.  According to WRAL.com [a CBS affiliated Raleigh news network] the out-of-state tuition rates would create a profit of $2,000 per student.  The Winston-Salem Journal reports "the out-of-state tuition rate covers the full cost of educating a student."