By Eric Carter
Education Reporter

DENVER, CO - A large Colorado college had no authority to offer illegal immigrants a discount on tuition under a plan the school unveiled earlier this month.

The opinion from Republican Attorney General John Suthers is non-binding, and Metropolitan State College of Denver disputes his analysis. But it could lead to renewed debate about the place of undocumented immigrants at the state's post-secondary institutions.

Suthers said Metro State circumvented the Colorado General Assembly by approving the discount.

The Republican-controlled state House of Representatives earlier this year threw out a bill that would have created a tuition rate for undocumented immigrants similar to what Metro State has put forth.

"Reasonable people of good intentions and good faith can disagree about the wisdom of granting discounted tuition to undocumented students," Suthers wrote in his opinion.

"But that decision is one that under existing law must be made by the legislature, not individual institutions of higher learning," he added.

The Obama administration earlier this month shook up the national debate over immigration with the announcement of a rule change that would extend eligibility to stay in the country to illegal immigrants up to age 30 who came to the United States as children and do not pose a risk to national security. They would also be able to apply for work permits.

Separately, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule any day on Arizona's tough immigration law, which among its provisions requires police to check the immigration status of anyone detained and suspected of being in the country illegally.

Metro State's plan is meant for illegal immigrants who have lived in the state for three years, graduated from high school, and not committed any crimes while in the United States.

The tuition of $3,358 per semester would be higher than for in-state students, but less than for out-of-state students. It is slated to be instituted in the fall.

By comparison, the out-of-state tuition rate at the school is over $7,900.

Suthers issued the non-binding opinion at the request of the state's multi-campus community college system, which may consider a similar rate structure.

Metro State's board of trustees said in a statement last Tuesday that it was never its intent to "disregard Colorado's law or its legislature," and that they do not believe they did.

"The structure of nonresident tuition rates by higher education institutions are not required to be authorized by the state legislature and the tuition rates contained no state subsidy," the trustees said.

But Suthers disagreed, and took a swipe at the college for not consulting his office before approving the plan. The school has an enrollment of about 24,000 students.

"Discounted tuition is a 'public benefit,' which under the current state law may only be provided to individuals who prove their lawful presence in the United States," Suthers wrote.

Several states including California and Texas have passed laws that allow some illegal immigrants to pay the same tuition rates as legal residents from within those states.

By Eric Carter
Education Contributor

High school graduates may be attending college in great numbers, but that doesn’t mean they are necessarily ready for higher education.

According to Complete College America, a Washington-based nonprofit aimed at increasing college completion, 4 in 10 high school graduates are required to take remedial courses when they start college. Additionally, Two-thirds of those students attending four-year colleges in Ohio and Kentucky fail to earn their degrees within six years: a number that is on par with national statistics.

College completion rates are even lower at two-year and community colleges. In Ohio and Kentucky, only 6.4 percent and 5.5 percent, respectively, of remedial students earn an associate’s degree in three years. The rest either require more than three years, or withdraw.

Researchers say that remedial numbers have increased from nearly one-third of incoming college freshmen in 2001, to about 40 percent currently. The most common remedial -- otherwise known as “developmental” -- classes are math, English and writing, and many students are unaware that they need theses courses until they start planning their schedules and colleges decide who is required to take placement tests.

About 1.7 million students across the United States take remedial classes, a cost of $3 billion a year since developmental courses often cost as much as regular college courses.

Experts also say that remedial coursework makes taxpayers pay twice -- once for students to learn in high school, and again in college.

“It’s not efficient to be using those higher education dollars for remedial coursework,” Miguel Ocacio, student at DePaul University, told Le Prestige. “It’s not only more difficult and more expensive, it also makes students feel like they can't compete with the other kids.”

The ACT indicates only about a third of high school students are college-ready, yet around two-thirds of them are college-bound every year.

Even high school grads who earned As and Bs in honors courses are in need of remedial coursework. A national survey showed four out of five students in college remediation had high school GPAs above a 3.0.

According to Chicago’s high school progress reports last October, just 22 percent of students graduating from the city’s high schools in 2011 were prepared for college coursework.

In January, the New York Post reported that nearly eight out of 10 high school graduates in New York City who enrolled at CUNY community colleges last fall were deemed unable to do college-level work and ultimately required to take remedial classes.

by Martina Gonzalez
Education Editor

The notion of a vocation, or particular calling, for educators is a complex and challenging one that takes into consideration values, sense of self within a community and society, along with a desire to grow professionally while changing the lives of others.

David Hansen's article, “Revitalizing the Idea of Vocation in Teaching", with regards to vocation is one that many teachers find worthwhile because the way public obligation and personal fulfillment is discussed is how many initially felt during their first few years as educators.

Many teachers feel an essence to do more, but often do not express this in words. Vocation develops as a need to want to find creative solutions to education and social issues, often feeling a strong sense of determination. Though educators interviewed in the past wouldn't personally call their career as an educator a “vocation” because of the religious perceptions associated, some do consider their work a passionate obligation.

From one teacher's experience working with both tenure and new teachers, a strong sense of duty develops from teachers who have a connection with the local community.

Caitlin Vanderstein, an educator teaching in the Chicago Public Schools system, told Le Prestige of her perspective regarding teachers and the working with the local community. "A sense of community proves to be important, particularly a bond between students and educators,", stated Vanderstein. "Unlike other professions, teachers really do benefit from learning about their students' backgrounds and ways of learning, so that the best practitioners I've encountered in the past are really those that remain closest to the learners."

Another teacher, Ana Guadalupe Perez, who works in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, discussed her experience in the classroom. Perez, a history teacher, discussed an incident where learning about a student's background helped her become a better educator.

"I remember a specific incident where one of my students a year ago had the most difficult time attempting to grasp the difference between a noun and a pronoun," Perez mentioned. "She would stare at the front of the class with a blank look on her face, then write a few notes on her in-class assignment, and eventually turn in a sheet with drawings of what appeared to be a happy family. She not only did this during my time with her, she would also fail to focus on her other assignments with other teachers."

Perez stated that her student was a victim of sexual abuse and she'd recently started receiving counseling from the school psychologist. The memories were coming back to this young girl, bringing fresh reminders of a negative past. After she became aware of the situation, Perez immediately focused her efforts on building trust and a comfort zone with the student in order for her to begin engaging once again in the classroom.

"I was determined to make my classroom a safe zone for my students to learn. Because other teachers didn't bother learning about this student's history, some suggested that this particular student needed to be in special education. If we don't actively engage with our students and simply limit our interactions to class material, we create a distance between ourselves and our students that can have devastating effects for the learning process."

The distance and sense of interaction among students and teachers directly applies to the teaching experience and philosophy of many educators across the nation. Vanderstein, like Perez, mentioned that becoming a teacher was something she did in order to make a positive contribution to society.

"When I initially became an educator, my goals were to make a positive difference in the lives of students and encourage education as a key to success," Vanderstein commented. "I imagined myself working with all kinds of students and allowing them to obtain their personal best in the classroom while facilitating them to best shape their futures. I've been fortunate to have had many opportunities to do this, for which I am very thankful."

However, Vanderstein, a 7th grade biology teacher, admits that society doesn't always appreciate the work of educators. "Our culture doesn't always value our diligence and responsibility as educators, particularly with regards to status and prestige and 'moving up' within the educational career path. Everyone thinks we just babysit, when in reality there is so much work to be done."