Just a few weeks before they are to graduate, hundreds of high school seniors in North Carolina have been punched in the gut. Today, the North Carolina Community College system announced that no community college will accept undocumented students.

These children did not make the decision to come here, and most do not have the option to return to their native countries. Mexican universities do not accept U.S. diplomas. Columbia is mired in a civil war. Crushing poverty makes life in Guatemala and El Salvador impossible.

This is a dark day. North Carolina had the proud distinction of being the first state to offer publicly available higher education, and now it is the first state to take it away. We are leaving hardworking students who have struggled to overcome unbelievable obstacles utterly without hope. Please, talk to your legislators, and encourage them to make higher education available for ALL our NC high school graduates.

Laura Wenzel
Pa’lante
www.palanteprogram.org