Proposition 300 punishes children, most of which are US citizens, denies access to education, eliminates the ability for non-English speakers to learn English, and impedes hard working students the ability to better their lives and increase their education by restricting their access to higher education.
About Proposition 300
Opinions: Proposition 300 misguided; hurts all Arizonans
9/20/06 | ASU Web Devil
The United States of America has long been known as the land of opportunity. If passed, Proposition 300 would put our ideals of upward mobility through higher education further out of reach of many of our Arizona high school scholars; it would make Arizona's economy less globally competitive and would greatly expand ASU's already large student-funded bureaucracy.
Proposition 300 would make scholarly Arizona high school graduates brought by their parents from another country to Arizona ineligible for in-state tuition.
Many of these students were brought to Arizona in their mothers' arms, without having a say in the matter. These students struggled and excelled through the often underfunded Arizona K-12 system and were admitted to the university system because of their scholastic achievement.
Now, the politicians at the state Capitol have put a referendum on November's ballot asking us voters to further disadvantage these high school graduates by drastically increasing their tuition overnight.
These are students who have goals of growing up to be doctors, engineers, teachers, or nurses, but if Proposition 300 is passed, they will be forced to give up their dreams.
With no prospect of attending college, most of these children would likely be more prone to dropping out of high school and joining gangs.
Today's global economy demands a highly educated workforce for Arizona to remain competitive; we cannot afford to turn more meritorious students away from attending higher education and becoming contributing members of society.
The shortsighted proponents of this bill also fail to mention that, if passed, Proposition 300 could force ASU to greatly expand its hefty bureaucracy by duplicating the services that other agencies should be providing. If passed, ASU would have to check the immigration status of every student that applies.
This would mean that ASU would have to create office space and hire the staff necessary to check the immigration status of the over 100,000 students that apply to ASU each year.
The funding for such a bureaucratic nightmare would have to come out of our already thinly stretched tuition dollars because this bill does not supply ASU (or any other university or community college) with the funding to pay for this mandate.
The proponents of this proposition purport that it would stop undocumented immigrants from coming to Arizona, but it would not stop any illegal immigrant from coming to America, nor would it make any illegal immigrant return to their country of origin.
Those that would be hurt by this proposition are not those that chose to immigrate to Arizona, but those that were brought to Arizona at a young age and know no other country but the United States.
This is another attempt by the politicians at the state Capitol to use the immigration issue to rally support to reduce funding to the university and community college system, while slapping on another unfunded mandate all ASU students would have to pay for.
Arizona deserves comprehensive immigration reform that would actually stop illegal immigration, not some patchwork legislation that allows politicians to pat themselves on the back without actually doing anything that would fix the problem.
I am asking that you vote no on Proposition 300 and keep the dream of opportunity alive for Arizona's children.