DREAM Act. Just the facts...

I just finished a memo for a public policy class and would like to share some of the things i learned from my background research pertaining to The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act) which you can read more about in an earlier blog post.
Just the facts...

• In the 1982 Supreme Court case, Plyer v. Doe, the court ruled that the state could not deny undocumented children free public education that is offered to other children residing within its borders (Brickman, 2006).

• Approximately 1.8 million of the 12 million undocumented immigrants, who are currently living in the U.S., are under the age of 18 and are eligible for public education (IPC, 2007).

• Each year about 65,000 undocumented immigrants graduate with a high-school diploma but are unable to apply for legal work and cannot afford college without government-backed financial aid (Chandler, 2008).

• It is estimated that only 5 -10% of undocumented immigrants with a high school diploma attend college (IPC, 2007).

• The Bureau of Labor Statistics expects nine high-skilled occupations (ones which require an associate degree or higher) to grow at least twice as fast as the national average between 2004 and 2014 (IPC, 2007).

• The rate of labor-force growth during the last few decades has been declining and fewer US-born workers are available to join the labor force (Gonzales 2007, 6).

• In 2006, The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that workers who lacked a high-school diploma had an unemployment rate of 6.8% and earned an average of only $419 per week (IPC, 2007). In contrast, workers with a bachelor’s degree had an unemployment rate of 2.3% and earned approximately $962 per week (IPC, 2007).

• In 1999, a RAND study estimated that the average Mexican female immigrant who graduates from college would, by the age of 30, increase her pretax income by more than $13,500 per year (NILC, 2005).

• The RAND study (1999) estimated that a 30-year-old female Mexican immigrant with a college degree will contribute $5,300 more in taxes and will cost $3,900 less in criminal justice and welfare expenses each year, than if she had dropped out of high school with no prospects of a college education. Based on this study, fiscal contribution of immigrants with a college degree may increase by more than $9,000 each year (NILC, 2005).

i'll let you draw your own conclusions...