Vote Yes on the DREAM Act

Sara Nathan is a high school English teacher and MCEA member. She recently wrote this compelling column on why we should support Question 4 - the Maryland DREAM Act. Thank you Sara for allowing MCEA to reprint it.

Clearing plates and filling water glasses in a restaurant is how a sixteen -year-old Salvadoran immigrant who lives in Rockville earns money to help his parents pay their rent. This fall, in addition to his restaurant work, he joined a growing number of undocumented immigrants who are attending Montgomery County Public Schools for the first time.

Increased school enrollment of undocumented teenagers who have been living in Maryland and working for restaurants, cleaning services, landscaping companies and home-based day care centers is one of the benefits of Obama’s executive order giving legal status and work permits to immigrants who came here when they were younger than 16 and have either graduated or are attending high school.

Now Maryland voters have the chance to give those students a greater motivation to graduate from high school and become well-educated contributing members of our society rather than part of a permanent non-English speaking underclass living and working in the shadows. Maryland voters can encourage these students to develop skills to qualify for higher-paying jobs which will increase the state tax base and generate more revenue for our economy.

Marylanders will be able to vote yes on Nov. 6 on ballot Question 4 which would give undocumented immigrants, who graduate from Maryland high schools and whose parents have paid taxes for at least three years, the right to pay in-state tuition to attend state universities. The greatest benefit of that initiative may well be that it gives high school students a greater incentive to earn their diplomas, whether or not they are financially able to go on to college.

In previous years, undocumented teenage immigrants have enrolled in Montgomery County schools, primarily with the goal of learning English and they initially progress quickly. In the 1982 case Plyler v. Doe, The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right of all students living in the United States to a free public school education, but some saw a greater value in working than studying.

The graduation rate for students enrolled in English as a Second Language classes is the lowest of any subgroup in Montgomery County – only 70.7% in 2010 compared to an overall graduation rate of 90%, according to the Montgomery County Public Schools Annual Report on Our Call to Action. Latino students, which may include undocumented immigrants who do not need specialized English classes, have the lowest graduation rate of any ethnic group –just 79.3%.

Immigrant students who dropped out often had a detrimental impact on their peers. Rather than admitting even to classmates that they chose not to pursue their diplomas because of their immigration status, they often claimed that school did not matter and they chose to work and earn money immediately.

But this fall, anecdotal conversations with new immigrant students have shown a return to education. Many report that they had already been living and working in Maryland, but were not enrolled in school or previously dropped out and chose to return to school in September.

Opponents may argue that these students are not legally in the U.S. and their education imposes an undue burden on tax papers. But these students are already here working and studying. Last year, one Salvadoran immigrant student reported that he held three jobs while attending school: cleaning office buildings Monday through Friday, washing trucks at a truck stop off Interstate 70 on Saturday, and cleaning garbage trucks on Sunday.

Encouraging these teenage workers to stay in school means Maryland businesses will have a better educated work force, rather than a permanent lower class of non-English speaking workers laboring for cash.

 The student working at the truck stop will be able to read instructions for handling dangerous chemicals and prevent accidents.

 The student who works at her mother’s in-home day care center will be able to read nutritional labels and make the informed decision to serve the children Cheerios, rather than Cheetos for snack.

 The student working at a restaurant will be able to follow proper food handling instructions and keep the ingredients clean and safe.

Supporting Maryland ballot Question 4 will do more than provide an education for potential low wage workers. It will motivate the best students, who have persevered despite an uncertain future, to graduate from high school, attend community colleges and then transfer to four-year universities. Even paying the in-state rates, the cost of nearly $5,000 for tuition and fees for a year at Montgomery College and as much as $23,000 for tuition, room, board and books at the University of Maryland, may present an insurmountable obstacle for undocumented immigrants, who would not qualify for financial aid.

But others will find the way to pay their tuition and invest in themselves. Those students will become the future nurses, teachers, electrical engineers, pharmacists and computer scientists of our state.