LTE: Dream propaganda

December 23, 2013

Regarding the Dec. 18 Perspectives piece “Preserve the Dream: Pennsylvania Should Employ the Children of Immigrants”: By making in-state tuition available to illegal immigrants, the Pennsylvania Dream Act would increase the numbers of annual applicants for a fixed number of incoming freshman seats. U.S. kids should not have to compete with foreign nationals, especially those here illegally, for a college education.

The Dream Act, therefore, would represent another significant hurdle to American high-school graduates for whom a college education is an increasingly elusive goal. Those aspiring students must find the money to pay ever-higher annual tuition and higher costs for room, board, books and transportation. They also must compete with more international students; last year, more than 875,000 enrolled nationwide.

The University of Pittsburgh and Penn State are land grant schools built for and funded by Pennsylvania taxpayers for the education and development of the state’s children. Those children’s applications should be given priority.

Dream Act proponents nonsensically claim that thousands of jobs go unfilled because of a shortage of qualified candidates. Bureau of Labor Statistics and Census Bureau data tell a different story. Nearly half of all recent college graduates are working at jobs that don’t require a university diploma; nearly 40 percent are employed in fields that don’t even call for a high school diploma.

Don’t believe the Dream Act propaganda. It would hurt, not help, Americans.

JOE GUZZARDI
Bradford Woods
CAPS Senior Writing Fellow