This week president Obama made some drastic changes to the way we, as a nation, treat young immigrants. The new rules are by no means an easy way for illegal immigrants to gain permanent residency. There are quite a few restrictions based upon age, academic status, and other factors. I’m not writing this article to debate the finer points of the president’s new policy, I’m writing this article because of all the illegal immigrants I know who’ve contributed in a positive way to this country. I’m not ashamed to say I personally know and like several undocumented migrants and not a single one is poor, uneducated, or a criminal.

We’re not going to make any headway on the issue of what to do with our border policy until we change the narrative that all undocumented visitors work digging ditches and undercutting the American worker. I knew two men who came from Europe. They own a thriving restaurant, which employs nearly twenty Americans in a small town economy and they give back to local schools and civic organizations. They’ve been here illegally for over five years and even missed seeing their father on his deathbed because if they left the country they wouldn’t be allowed to return for a number of years. Their business would’ve fallen apart and left a gaping hole in their town’s economy. Americans would go jobless in hard times because of our immigration policies.

Another friend of mine was raised here in the states, but isn’t a citizen. Her parents split when she was out of high school and she decided to stay here instead of returning to one of two foreign countries she’s never known. Instead of being able to go to college and get a good job that allows her to contribute to this, the only country she’s experienced in 20 years, she has to take under the table waitressing positions to make ends meet. She lives scared of being deported, and ...

A new education report finds that California schools are under more stress than ever after years of budgets cuts.

The first report by EdSource to analyze school stress factors, “Schools under Stress: Pressures Mount on California’s Largest School Districts” identifies eight factors that make it more difficult for a school to provide quality education to all of its students. 

“Unless you are a parent or a student, you don’t know what is going on in schools,” EdSource executive director Louis Freedberg told reporters from ethnic media outlets at a recent briefing in downtown Los Angeles co-organized by New America Media. 

“What we really try to do with this report is to bring together a list of factors that are often reported on but not in a comprehensive, holistic way,” he said. 

Freedberg, who worked as an education reporter with California Watch before joining the education research organization, said the stress factors allow the media and the general public to gain greater understanding of the accumulative impact on schools after five sustained years of cuts, which amount to an average loss of $530 per student.

The report was compiled by surveying California’s 30 largest school districts, which serve more than half of the student population in the state who are largely low-income and non-white. The report also drew data from the American Community