The Southern Highland Reader

STATEWIDE–The Raleigh News and Observer editorializes on the recent, near unanimous decision of the State Board of Community Colleges to allow undocumented immigrants into state community colleges.

Here’s the N&O’s lead:

You might think such a move would be easy and popular, but it wasn’t easy and this particular change may not be widely supported, at least right away. Opposition to admitting illegal immigrants to community colleges has become a flashpoint issue in North Carolina, and Republican officials, joined by Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue and Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton, immediately criticized the 18-member State Board of Community Colleges for its near-unanimous decision. (Dalton, who has a seat on the board, was the lone “no” vote.)

Here’s hoping, however, that the logic of the board’s action and its carefully crafted nature will cool the most overheated of the opposition. North Carolinians are fair-minded people, and the decision the community college board has taken is fair to all. If anything, it is tougher on the young people involved than are the policies of most states.

Here’s the rest of the column.

STATEWIDE–Jack Betts at the Charlotte Observer writes that Governor Bev Perdue and Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton endanger their legacies as leaders in education by wavering on the matter of undocumented immigrants in North Carolina colleges.

Writes Betts:

Democrats such as Perdue and Dalton generally hold in high regard the views of a former education governor such as Jim Hunt or a lion of American higher education such as Bill Friday. But on the issue of illegal immigrants in public colleges, their view is more in line with Republicans in the legislature who hope to push legislation next year to prohibit the admission of undocumented students.

Read his entire blog post here.