FOCUS ON STUDENTS WHEN CRAFTING DACA SOLUTION
President Trump made his choice about DACA and put the ball in Congress’s court, and there’s no changing that. So here’s the way I would urge our community to think about this situation and how Congress should approach it.
My daddy once told me, “Politicians change minds; statesmen change hearts.” If there were ever a time we needed our leaders to step up and be statesmen and stateswomen, it is now. As someone who has worked directly on education programs and strategies that help DACA students succeed in K-12 and support them in obtaining industry credentials to access a living wage job, I would encourage our leaders to remember we aren’t just talking about legislation; we are talking about lives. The DACA students I have encountered want to be contributing members of our society and are overcoming multiple hurdles to achieve this, including a lack of in-state tuition support.
Our two bold goals in Chattanooga 2.0 state that 75 percent of our community will have a market value credential, and we will double the percentage of graduates from Hamilton County public schools who obtain a post-secondary degree or credential. We did not add any caveats about only certain demographics of students reaching those goals. In the report we released last year based on the community’s feedback (www. chatt2.org), we use the word “all” four times on the first page alone when referencing students and adults — not “some,” “many.”
When I first learned about DACA and met some DACA students, I was instantly taken with their commitment to taking full advantage of the grace they were being shown, and to me, grace is a big part of this conversation because you have children who were brought to a country not of their own volition. And I would remind our leaders that real grace is proactive, not reactive, so use this opportunity to show grace to young people who are working toward being contributing members of our communities. Don’t leverage it as part of a bigger immigration agenda.
As an educator, I would urge our leaders to act quickly to remove this cloud of anxiety hanging over students’ heads until it’s resolved. All students deal with some stress, and students of poverty deal with more than their fair share, but this is going to be a level of stress unlike anything these young people have encountered. We talk a lot about poverty and economic mobility, and DACA was one mechanism that has concrete evidence it supports young people on a path to success. To literally rip students from this path goes against every moral imperative we preach on supporting students in accessing opportunities. What more tangible example of accessing opportunity is there than the results of the DACA program?
Some people argue that the creation of DACA was an executive overreach by President Obama, but now Congress has the opportunity to put that argument to rest and to legislatively support those young people — if they will lead with urgency. Other people will argue the financial impact this will have if a possible 800,000 DACA workers are pulled from the workforce in the coming years. Some people will argue about the huge fiscal cost of deporting so many people at one time.
But never lose sight that we are talking about lives behind the legislation and all those numbers. This is not a time to focus on adult-centered problems; it is a time to focus on student-centered solutions.
Jared Bigham is executive director of Chattanooga 2.0. Contact him at jared@chatt2.org.