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For the Record: 02/07/08

Posted on February 6, 2008 by Staff

Schools take a stand
In a year where election posturing is fueling an already overheated debate over immigration policy, most officials not in the running are inclined to fly low.

So credit the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education for having the guts to step into the debate over whether undocumented individuals are eligible to receive a community college education in the state of North Carolina. 

On the school board’s agenda at this Thursday’s meeting (Feb. 7) is a resolution in support of the decision by community colleges system president Martin Lancaster to extend a community college education to this state’s undocumented residents.

In most cases, these are people who came to this country as infants or small children. In many cases, this is really the only country they’ve known. In all cases, they have worked hard enough in school to take their education to the next level. That is a value this state has endorsed since its inception.

In the opening sentence of the North Carolina Constitution’s article on education, it is stated, “the means of education shall forever be encouraged.” A little later on is the stipulation that “equal opportunities shall be provided for all students.”

The Supreme Court of the United States has upheld that undocumented children are entitled to a K-12 education. That is the law of the land. Extending that right of access to education further is a logical step and fits with the long-held values of our state.

We applaud any public body willing to make that case, especially in today’s climate.

Trucking toward a solution
The board of aldermen Tuesday night indicated that they’d like to take a look at the town ordinance that caused zoning violation letters to go to businesses that allow the taco trucks to use their property. A fair reading of that move is that the trucks will be allowed to continue to operate.

Last week, as the story and reaction unfolded, a couple of issues were raised that are notable. First, there seemed to be a quick leap in some people’s minds that violations had to do with health and food-handling rules. In fact, they had nothing to do with food-safety or public-health issues. We checked, and the trucks are in compliance with county rules, which require them to operate in conjunction with a licensed inspected commissary.

The second notable reaction, and the most disturbing one, was that somehow because these trucks are serving food indigenous to Latin America, there is an illegal-immigration angle. This just underlines how quick some people are to voice their resentment against a specific group that, as we said in the editorial above, has been so effectively vilified by the jingoists. We doubt that if a couple of kebab wagons or a somosa cart had opened in the downtown there would be a similar outcry.

Get outside
A new major study by the Nature Conservancy — soon to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences — confirms that there has been a steady and steep worldwide decline in the amount of time we spend in nature.

The concern is that as we become a more urbanized planet and spend less and less time in the natural world, our connection with it and our commitment to it is decreasing as well.

Not sure if there’s a long-term solution to this problem, but if you’d like to save yourself and your children from this fate there is a tiny button on your remote that can actually make the television/DVR/gamebox stop. The mid-week weather certainly offered ample reward for anyone willing to press said button and venture outside. And, as our Flora columnist Ken Moore points out this week, there is growing evidence that a rather colorful outdoor event call “spring” may occur again this year. Be sure not to miss it.

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