I am disappointed at the reaction to the announcement by the community college system that it should admit students who are the children of undocumented persons. These are children, who through no fault of their own, were brought to this country. They worked hard in school and only wish to further their education. Yet there are those who would seek to deny them, and us, the fruits of their labors.

I am dismayed by those who ignore the facts about these children: They pay out-of-state tuition, which is $2,000 more than the actual cost of a community college student's education. In addition, there are only 340 undocumented students out of a total of 271,000 students in the community college system. This is hardly denying a place to any North Carolina student.

I'm thankful for the common sense of our governor, community college system President Martin Lancaster and the two presidential candidates, Democrat Bill Richardson and Republican Mike Huckabee, who see the true picture.

Huckabee put it beautifully, "In all due respect, we're a better country than to punish children for what their parents did. We're a better country than that."

Ellie Kinnaird

State Senate

Carrboro

(The writer, a Democrat, represents Senate District 23.)

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