How Do We Educate Everyone?

High school teacher Elias Vlanton writes a poignant editorial with some great points about the immigration issue, from an education perspective. In the article, Elias advocates for a bill that would require that all immigrants 25 or younger, before qualifying for permanent resident status, graduate from high school or earn a GED. Elias is really asking the question many of us ask which is: How do we as a society make sure that everyone has a basic education?

This is a tough question.

I am no way an expert on immigration issues. However, as a waitress, I have become close with and know many immigrants with work visas who work in the kitchen of my restaurant. These men and women work two restaurant jobs a day, everyday. They work from 9am to 4:30pm, then leave to go to their other restaurant job where they finish between 10:30pm-2am, depending on the place. They have no health insurance or benefits, and are just happy to get paid hourly. The money that does not pay for rent and living wages, is either saved up or sent to their families so that they can eat. They work like this for years and years with no vacations or breaks. And they are the lucky ones. I won't even go into migrant workers quality of life.

The people I work with do believe in education and want to learn English. They understand for the most part that it will provide a better life. However, they cannot afford to take the time off to go to school or ESL classes (which btw inspired me to start an ESL program at the restaurant...we are in week 4 and I have never worshipped anyone like I am worshipping ESL teachers right now...grad school is cake compared to teaching English as a second language).

I think that we absolutely need to get behind educating everyone in this country, especially in the case of immigrants, so that access to opportunities is available to all of us. What Elias discusses is a good start, but we have to be careful and deliberate about setting up a system that will not fail our new arrivals who are on the path to become citizens. In the case of immigrants, if we make education a requirement, it would have to be offered in flexible ways so that it is an attainable goal, rather than a screening process to weed out or deny immigrants a chance at citizenship. Maybe, instead of making it a requirement, we should offer incentives to the businessmen and employers of immigrants to bring the education to the workplace. Hiring tutors or holding class for two hours before or after a shift everyday can make a big difference, rather than having them going once a week on a day or night off to class. And for every employee that gains a high school diploma, the employers could get a business tax break or some type of extra bonus.

Anyone else have any other ideas?