GED seekers are
confronting serious obstacles in Arizona.
The State Legislature has been cutting Adult Education budgets to the point
of starvation and Prop.300 denied public funding for undocumented youth since
2007. The remedial high school
certification landscape is a difficult one for citizen and undocumented
immigrants alike.
Many persons who
are reaching out to me seeking information for GED instruction are young
mothers in their early 20s who dropped out of high school due to pregnancy and
now find difficult to find GED instruction to re-enter education. USCIS willingness to accept enrollment to GED
programs for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) applicants without a
High School diploma is suddenly increasing the demand and urgency for GED
classes by these individuals.
Here is a list
of challenges GED seekers are finding in Arizona and specially Maricopa County:
Decreased funding. GED instruction has
been severely de-funded. In 2010, Governor Brewer signed a budget that
eliminated the $4.5 million appropriation for Adult Education and GED
Testing. When Arizona eliminated this GED funding, it also lost $11
million in matching funds from the Federal government.
On line classes. Some GED outlets at Community
Colleges only offer on-line classes to undocumented youth which may be a
challenging setting for low proficiency students.
Students with different levels of proficiency. GED instructors need to assess
different levels of proficiency. It may take real commitment and monetary investment
from some students to make up for lost time, acquire a GED certification and then
apply for DACA.
different levels of proficiency. It may take real commitment and monetary investment
from some students to make up for lost time, acquire a GED certification and then
apply for DACA.
Bureaucratic barriers. Community
colleges in Maricopa County (one of the largest in the nation) took time to
implement new Arizona Department of Education’s ID policies and their own internal
guidelines and denied GED instruction to some, especially during the first
weeks after August the 15th. Some Community Colleges’ personnel in Maricopa
County are not properly trained to offer consistent, non-intrusive enrollment procedures
and question about immigration status, SS#.
Different programs, funding and models
create confusion. Non-profits are
creating their own models to offer tuition based GED programs for people
seeking to apply to DACA and comply with Prop. 300 at the same time.
Potential for fraud. Some organizations,
charter schools are charging up to 4,500 for “High School Diplomas”; others
offer “too good to be true” on-line classes. It may be difficult for immigrant
youth to assess the adequate “intensity and integrity” of a GED, High School competition
program, putting the burden of proof on the undocumented youth for DACA
purposes.
Uneven production of enrollment documents
to apply for DACA. GED outlets are still figuring out the production of
documentation and receipts helpful for DACA applicants.
DREAM Act volunteer
non-profit organizations, CADENA, The Arizona DREAM Act Coalition and Tucson based Scholarships A-Z are taking
the task to guide GED seekers in order to have a better educated workforce for
the state and to have young immigrants, so
many times forgotten, applying for DACA.
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