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Show Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues, December 31, 2005 - January 3, 2006 The Park Record A-12 Undocumented students face a financial hurdle HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) _ When Fabiola Guevara graduated from South Dade Senior High School in June, 11 years after her mother fled with her from Mexico, she had nearly a perfect 4.0 grade point average. Her dream was to enroll in a state university nursing program, but she didnt even apply. Guevara couldn't afford higher education. Like thousands of other illegal immigrant students, Guevara was ineligible for college financial aid. And it would cost triple what legal Florida residents pay, impossible on her mother's houskeeper wages, to attend a public university because undocumented students don't qualify for in-state tuition discounts. "When I started high school, it never hit me that when I graduated, I had no place to go," said Guevara, who is 17. "I studied here all my life. What am I supposed to do with the rest of my life? Work as a housekeeper? Pick beans in the fields?" Fedefal law prohibits illegal immigrant students from receiving government-backed loans and grants to attend college. The law, which was part of 1996 immigration reforms, also discourages states from providing these students with in-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities. But lawmakers in Congress have proposed legislation to help students like Guevara. The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, more commonly known as the DREAM ACT, would allow undocumented students who arrived in the U.S. before they turned 16 and have lived here at least five years to become temporary legal residents, making them eligible for college financial aid and other benefits. Florida also is moving to join other states with huge illegal immigrant populations _ such as California, New York and Texas _ that allow in-state tuition rates for undocumented students. A bill, introduced in October and scheduled for committee consideration in March, would offer in-state rates to undocumented students who attended Florida schools at least three years and agree to seek lper-.' manent U.S. resident Status. '*- Across the country, an estimated 65,000 to 90,000 high school seniors who graduate each year _ including II in HIGH-SPEED INTERNET c ° Z. c Q O Qi O O 8 - 31 5 5 S to E f 3 S •§ E C IT'!, scheduled for consideration this spring. Wilson compares the fight with a civil-rights issue. "These children are being penalized. It's no fault of theirs that they're not citizens," she said. Many were brought to the United States by their parents when they were as young as five or six, and worked hard for years in U.S. public schools. "I think we owe them. They have a right. They want to be somebody. It's reminiscent of many civil rights battles that I as an African American had to fight," Wilson said. A stream of students beseech counselors at Miami Dade College to allow them entry at in-state rates, said Jose A. Vicente, president of Miami Dade North Campus. Typical in-state tuition is about $2,000 per year, while out-ofstate tuition is $6,000, he said. "These are kids whose English is flawless. There are cases when we have had valedictorians, very high ranking students, and still they are required to pay out of state tuition, with no scholarships," Vicente said. He said some have "broken down in tears" when told they have to prove they are U.S. citizens or legal residents. Fabiola Guevara cannot forget the shame she felt as she hid her undocumented status from other seniors and tried to share their happiness when they were accepted at college. "You don't want to be jealous, but it just hurts." But Guevara, who spends her days baby-sitting her cousin, won't have to wait for changes by Congress or the Florida Legislature to pursue her dreams. Her mother's remarriage to an American has made her eligible to pursue legal status, a nursing degree and her eventual goal of becoming a doctor. Oscar Rosales, 18, a senior at South Dade, has not been so fortunate. His mother emigrated from Honduras 10 years ago, after his father died, and there is little chance he can study computer programming as he wishes. He dropped soccer to tend plants in a nursery part time, and after graduation plans to labor in construction with his brother. : \^l have the grades to go to college, but not the money," Rosales said. DIGITAL TV LOCAL PHOTO COURTESY OF MARLENE CRUMP Justin S. Crump, PCHS class of 1999, graduated with honors from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado on December 17, 2005. Justin received a Bachelor of Arts in English and Communications. Tuition voucher bill headed to 2006 session SALT LAKE CITY (AP) _ A tuition voucher bill planned for the 2006 session would allow school districts to keep some of the per-pupil state funding for students going to private schools. The bill by state Rep. Brad Dee, R-Washington Terrace, would provide private school tuition vouchers ranging from $500 to $3,000, based on the family's annual income. Ever)' quarter, voucher amounts would be subtracted from a school district's per-pupil funding allocation from the state, about $4,000 for each student annually. The district would keep all perpupil funding beyond the voucher amount, even though students who chose the voucher option would no longer attend district schools. An advantage of the bill is that because it would make taxpayer districts would continue to receive dollars available to the private secsome per-pupil funding, while not tor. having as many students enrolled, Utah already offers an abundance which could help ease classroom of public education choices not available in other stales, including overcrowding. Dee said. It would also give parents more the ability to transfer between educational choices for their chil- schools within and outside of districts, religious instruction during dren, he said. "I'm not trying to injure school the school day and a variety of districts," Dee said. "I'm trying to advanced and extracurricular courssee if there is a way vouchers can be es, Rusk said. About 43,000 students in Utah advantageous to both sides." Royce Van Tassell, spokesman attend public schools by choice outfor Parents for Choice in Education, side of their neighborhoods, she said the organization supports Dee's lJlestimated. However",' ituderrt^'can only bill because of the options it offers ^'transfer to another school if there is parents. Pat Rusk, president of the Utah room, which makes private schools Education Association, said her a viable alternative. Van Tassell organization will oppose the bill said. WIRELESS LONG DISTANCE VE RAISED THE SPEED LIMIT, PARK CITY. P- 9) 9) some 4,000 from Florida _ face the same dilemma as Guevara. As children, they migrated-to America illegally with their parents but find their college and career ambitions blocked by their illegal status. "The children that are here should not be punished for the sins of their parents," said Hector M. Flores, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, the country's oldest and largest Hispanic civil rights organization. "They are the children that are going to give us the competitive edge." As high school seniors who are among an estimated 1.7 million undocumented children under 18 graduate, many abandon higher education _ and career plans ._ because they cannot afford college, said David Hawkins, director of public policy for the National Association for college Admission Counseling, a Virginia-based association that represents 9,000 secondary school and university counselors and financial aid officers. "They're stuck in a limbo where they can't get formal employment and they can't go on to college," Hawkins said. "At best, they become part of the underground economy. At worst they become a liability." Some turn to crime, he said. The DREAM Act, which is sponsored by Sens. Richard Durbin, D-I1I., Chuck Hagel, RNeb., and Richard Lugar, R-Ind., has been introduced with each Congress since 2001 but has never passsed. It faces a difficult battle amid congressional concern over national security and illegal immigration. Flores and other advocates for undocumented students hope the bipartisan bill will be more successful than in previous years because the Bush administration and Congress are now pushing hard for immigration reform. Foreign-born students could potentially fill teaching and nursing jobs, addressing a shortage that grows more critical as baby boomers retire, Flores said. Texas needs 10,000 bilingual SpanishEnglish teachers and California needs 20,000, he said. Like the federal bill, the state legislation- proposed' by Sen. Frederick Wilson, D-Miami, has been introduced before _ 2005. marked the fourth year. The bill is Winter graduation for Crump ai S *™ (5 i 11 5 ' - g g e to Iff!? £ > S ffl <3 to aj E .S O Qwesf High-Speed Internet. Easy to get started. Easy to use. Easy to afford. Qwest Choice™ DSL Deluxe with MSN* Premium I a month FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR! 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