Why is it right, and why should you care?
If you're not a Minnesota resident but live in one of the 24 states that provide in-state tuition to illegal aliens, you're paying for it. The Minnesota Office of Higher education reports that 76 percent of their funding is from taxpayer dollars. State and local funding is used to provide in-state tuition, so it's your money.
They argue that ending this policy will hurt DACA "kids" more than American citizens who don't qualify for in-state tuition because DACA recipients "often don't qualify for any other scholarships or assistance."
Except when the State of Minnesota provides an avenue for that.
Cue the "Minnesota Dream Act" that allows illegal aliens to apply for benefits like scholarships and in-state financial aid by "establishing residency." This opens up many financial aid doors that would otherwise be closed and allows them to bypass the Free Application for Student Federal Aid (FAFSA) program that low-income American citizens use to apply for tuition assistance. Illegal aliens are prohibited from receiving federal financial aid, so Minnesota, like some other blue states, rode to the rescue to fix that.
I feel bad for DACA "kids." I think most people do, which is why we've accepted the "Dreamer" moniker into our vernacular even though it was coined when the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act failed to pass in 2001. People feel so bad for these "kids" that politicians don't dare overturn President Obama's Executive Order establishing DACA. It would be political suicide. Even people who disagree with illegal immigration tend to soften when Dreamers are invoked.
As bad as we feel for Dreamers because of the decision their parents made (I must add the requisite "through no fault of their own"), shouldn't we also feel bad for American children whose parents made decisions that negatively impact their access to college through no fault of their own?
These American children aren't living the American Dream, but a Dickensien nightmare. My examples may seem hyperbolic (kind of like when we debate defunding Planned Parenthood, everyone "needing" an abortion is a 10-year-old incest victim); however, these are examples of children's lives I've seen, lived. Even one of the challenges detailed below could derail an American child's college dreams. These children have:
- Parent(s) with a Substance Use Disorder*. Their childhoods are unstable, chaotic. They may have lived in filth or moved around because their parent was unable to keep housing. If the family owned a car, the child may have never learned to drive it because their family couldn't afford Driver's Ed. The parent might not have been sober enough to teach the child to drive, or worse, drove impared with the child in the car. (In states like Minnesota, driving is important because access to public transportation isn't readily available outside of major cities.) Popular shows such as Netflix's Ginny and Georgia or And Just Like That show the stress even children of privilege with very plugged-in parents go through to get into college: 5.0 GPAs, staggering numbers of diverse extra-curriculars for that perfect college application, ACT test tutors, consultants/coaches to help craft the perfect admissions essay/portfolio. Children of addicts don't usually have access to these things, either due to economic issues caused by a parent's addiction or inability of the addicted parent to help organize the child's life day to day, let alone help them through successful transition into adulthood or the labrynth required for modern college admissions. There is no tuition break for children of addicts.
*For everyone who argues, "addiction is a disease, not a choice," I say: every day a parent doesn't get sober, they're choosing their addiction over their child. When my husband had cancer, he did everything, including allowing doctors (with no informed consent, "just give me more time to be a Dad") to install a port in his skull through which they would shoot chemotherapy drugs directly into his brain. He submitted to this torture twice a week for a month to get one more day of the possible extra six months they said chemo could give him to be a father. It failed. The chemo (the doctors admitted) was killing him faster than the cancer. He died a week after they stopped. He'd have done anything--and I mean anything--to stick around, but he didn't have a choice because Cancer chose for him. Putting a bottle to your lips or a needle in your arm is not a disease like cancer, MS, or any disease that a parent does not choose that changes the lives of their children, so I don't accept your argument. - Parent(s) with other adictions (social media, sex). Have you ever heard a child say, "Mom, Mom, Mom, MOM, MOM!" before Mom looks up from her phone? According to a 2019 New York Times article, 45 percent of parents report feeling addicted to their phones. Other studies show a sad 65 percent of parents use phones during meals, and a terrifying 56 percent of parents use their phones while driving. Many children must compete with this technological interloper for parental attention from birth.
A sex addicted single parent may parade a steady stream of partners through the home, putting the child at risk of abuse of all types. The parent's sexual behavior can result in a child's increased anxiety, depression, delinquency and poor school performance. There are no taxpayer-funded programs for children of parents with social media and sex additions.
- Able bodied parent(s) who don't work. Yes, these people exist, thus the need for the Big Beautiful Bill adding work/volunteer/school requirements for able-bodied adults who choose not to work. There are a lot of reasons: laziness; perceived or self-diagnosed but undocumented disability; "I'm too good for that job" syndrome; etc. Children living in these households are in poverty because of parental choices, not because of the post-COVID economy or other factors outside of parental control. These parents are often lazy or disorganized, so nobody checks backpacks, e-mails, or asks if the child has homework. The child's grade suffer, creating barriers for college dreams before they begin. If they clear the hurdles poverty brings and have college ambitions, there's the North Star Promise program, State Financial Aid for college for children whose families meet income eligibility requirements. Please note that American children must compete with illegal aliens for these funds.
- Hunger: Children living in poverty caused by parents' choices may be too consumed with the essentials of hunger or shelter to think about excelling in school. It's hard to concentrate when you're stressed out and hungry. Even if there's food in the house, the parent may be too checked out to prepare it for the child, so they eat whatever their age or skill level allows or just go hungry. Minnesota gives free breakfast and lunch to all children, forcing poor children to compete for food with wealthy ones. Some school buses arrive at school too late for kids to eat breakfast. Four of six major food vendors that prepare school lunches also feed Minnesota's prisoners. Even the hungriest child will throw away disgusting prison food.
When summer comes, because of Tim Walz' "I Spend Taxpayer Dollars on Food For Kids Who Don't Need It So I Can Brag About How I Feed Hungry Children" program, children are no longer automatically enrolled in a free/reduced price program that follows them into summer to provide food support. The parent, who often struggles with simple tasks due to one or more of the factors listed here, is required to seek out paperwork to file for food support each summer. Some parents never complete this step, resulting in three months of hunger for the child, making Tim Walz' signature law even more jawdroppingly stupid. Hunger can directly affect school performance, which directly affects college access. - Parents who choose divorce,** According to a Census.gov report, nearly 1/3 of American children experience divorce, which reduces the family income by an average of 40 percent. The study found that divorce "reduces children's adult earnings and college residence while increasing incarceration, mortality, and teen births." Even in the best of circumstances, children must navigate two homes and endure the destabalizing effects of parents dating or remarrying. The best-case scenario that puts children's needs first isn't the norm, so these children endure neglect and emotional, physical and even sexual abuse that their peers who live in nuclear families don't experience. Let's not forget the fresh hell lived by children whose parents live apart but can't afford or just don't bother to divorce, so custody arrangements and child support orders usually in place to protect children of divorce are absent. Despite the potentially catastrophic effects on their futures, there are no taxpayer-funded programs that specifically help children of divorce pay for college.
**When I say "choose divorce," I'm referencing people who put their own happiness and fulfillment above that of their children and break up the family unit, careening their children's lives into turmoil, anxiety, and pain. I realize divorce is sometimes necessary (especially for the "Three A's:" adultery, addiction, abuse). Not all divorce should be avoided, but an increasing number are avoidable as divorce for any reason is more socially acceptable than ever. All states have no-fault divorce laws. - Absent mother, father, or both. One or both parents decided living his best life was more important than sticking around and supporting his child emotionally, physically, financially. The adults who come out of these fatherless (less often, motherless) situations will live with the effects of this decision forever, especially financially. Their families may not be able to afford food or housing because of the absent parent's choices. Parents can be physically present but still absent, leaving the child to be raised by herself and the internet, if they have internet. The MacBook the child was presented with in first grade requires WiFi so she can do her homework. If homelessness has forced the family to live in a motel, school-provided computers may not work there. If there's no internet at home, the parent must have the means/money/initiative to drive her to a library or a parking lot where she can hook up to WiFi just to get her homework done. (Note: paper and pencils work everywhere, no matter how poor you are.) If both parents choose to leave, the child may be raised by grandparents, other family, or in foster care. If foster homes are available, they complete high school/GED, are disabled, attend post-secondary school or work 80 hours monthly, youth can remain in foster care up to age 21 in 48 states. That's a lot of "ifs," resulting in only 13 percent of Minnesota's foster children remaining in foster care past age 18. Most foster children get the gift of homelessness for their 18th birthday. Fostering Independence Grants is a Minnesota taxpayer-funded nonprofit that provides tuition assistance for foster children; but again, these children must compete with illegal aliens for these funds.
- A Hobby Parent. This Dad picks up the child to play with it whenever it suits him and puts the child down when he's bored or something more interesting comes up. He's around, but he's not financially, physically, or emotionally accessable or stable for his child. He doesn't pay child support, and sometimes goes to great lengths to avoid paying, like allowing his driver's licence to be suspended due to unpaid child support giving him the circular excuse: "I can't pay child support because I don't have a job because I can't get one without a driver's licence because mine was suspended because I don't pay child support." Mom may be trying her best as a single mom on one income in a two-income economy. She might work multiple jobs with long hours or become depressed and spend most of her time in bed. Nobody makes dinner for that child. No one cares if he has breakfast. He gets himself ready for school, sometimes with the help of an older sibiling.
- Abuse: An estimated one in three girls and one in five boys are victims of sexual abuse in the United States. Neglect is the most common form of child abuse, comprising 59 percent of abuse victims. Abused and neglected children are 11 times more likely to commit crimes as adults. Statistics on domestic abuse between adults in the home vary widely with estimates of between 3.3 and 10 million children witnessing domestic abuse. Living in these situations is never the child's choice. All of these forms of abuse have negative effects on school performance and mental health, which alters a child's future access to college. There are no taxpayer-funded scholarship programs for abused children.
Double, triple quadruple, etc., the effects the above parents' choices if there are multiple children in the family. These children must compete for scarce resources of all types in their own homes before they try to go to college and compete with illegal aliens for scarce resources.
Illegal aliens are allowed to apply for every program I found that helps children whose college dreams are made harder by their parents' choices. In a de-facto sanctuary state like Minnesota, this really matters. There are finite resources that must be spread out to citizen and non-citizen college applicants alike. There isn't enough money to go around and in a state like Minnesota, people in "underserved, under-represented communities, i.e., people of color, who make up the majority of illegal alien residents, are always first in line. (Statewide sanctuary status failed to pass the legislature, so Minnesota is not a sanctuary state, it just operates like one. Cities have sued to stop Walz from ordering them to operate like sanctuary cities. When will Minnesota be sued for violating the will of the people by flouting its own non-sanctuary state status?)
Where are the expensive taxpayer-funded programs enshrined into law assisting American--I can't stress this enough--JUST AMERICAN CITIZEN college applicants living with the decisions their parents made that changed their lives forever?
They don't exist. We don't help these college dreamers. We don't enact taxpayer-funded programs into law to help them out of the holes their parents dug for them. We hope they'll dig themselves out. There are programs, like AlaTeen or charities that may help give order to their disordered lives, but we don't fund them with taxes.
The Cause of the Problem and Why There Should be No Solution
Most of the people making laws live in worlds where kids get new cars for their 16th birthdays, big graduation parties and send-offs to their bright, shiny college futures. They grow up eating dinner every night and breakfast every morning. They're taken to the doctor when they're sick and to the dentist twice a year. They get braces. They're carefully cared for, especially financially. Their grades are important, tracked, tutors hired if the child is struggling. This is not the whole of America, or even most of it.
For those who say "money doesn't buy happiness," I say, it buys food, medical care and housing. It buys transportation to both necessary and enriching activities. It pays for music lessons, sports equipment, and extra curriculars, which are increasingly provided a-la-carte as an added parental expense in public schools. In Minnesota, things like choir, band, sports and school counselors (even at the elementary school level) are paid for by parents, not taxpayer-funded public schools. Children who don't live with the kind of privilege lawmakers think comprises the lives of most Americans don't have easy access to things that look good on college applications that used to be "free" with a public school education.
They think, "America is the wealthiest country in the world." You know, the kind of wealth with a big house, new car, maxed out credit cards, and drug-addicted kids huddled starving in a tent in the backyard. "We can afford to help everyone who comes to our country for a better life achieve the American dream." That would be nice if it were even a little bit true, and if they focused on taking care of their own before taking care of the rest of the world.
If we care so, so much about helping children of people who chose to bring them here (a choice no matter how you slice it) why don't we care just as much about helping American children who must live with their parents' choices? We all live with the choices our parents made, good or bad. Think about your life. You know it's true.
We don't because it's not politically viable and because it would be too expensive to help every American who had a crappy childhood. It'll get more expensive as mental health declines and addiction soars.
The truth is, government can't be the salve for every wound. It can't heal scars or undo screwed up parental choices that negatively alter the prospects of their college-aged children.
We pay for the choices of illegal immigrant parents but not not American parents. Does that make sense? No. Governor Walz executed a magic trick worthy of a Las Vegas stage: turning a projected $616 million surplus into a $6 billion deficit. Can we afford to be a magnet state for illegal aliens? No.
The only way to fix this is for the Trump DOJ to win its lawsuit and force Minnesota to stop giving college benefits to illegal aliens. We should not overcorrect, as government often does, and add more programs to help American children. If we stopped making them compete with illegal aliens for resources, there just might be enough to help the victims of bad parenting with the systems already in place.
Now imagine that the children living in homes with some or all of the problems detailed above are white. In Minnesota, that means even if they climb every mountain placed in front of them by their parents on top of growing up in COVID craziness, the high crime and burned-out cities left by the George Floyd riots, etc., and go to college, when they graduate they'll be last in line for jobs. If you're a white boy with terrible childhood growing up in Minnesota, I wish you luck. You're gonna need it.
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| Subject of my next article |
