Story Published:
Mar 11, 2009 at 8:17 PM PDT
Story Updated:
Mar 11, 2009 at 8:17 PM PDT
LYNWOOD — Graduating seniors at Marco Antonio Firebaugh High School here are participating in a 500-word essay contest titled “Remembering Marco,” where students must write how they would continue to foster the late assemblyman’s vision to help students and what they would tell today’s policy makers.
Organized by Firebaugh High School’s Falcon Pride Parent Booster Club, which has raised funds all year, the contest is open only to Firebaugh seniors who are immigrants.
The late assemblyman, with Abel Maldonado, authored Aseembly Bill 540 in 2001, also known as the Federal Dream Act, which granted in-state college tuition rates to illegal immigrants who have graduated from a California high school.
That dream, however, is once again being debated.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the state Supreme Court will be the next battleground in the debate over benefits for illegal immigrants as the justices have agreed to hear arguments on the constitutionality of a state law allowing undocumented students to pay in-state tuition at public colleges and universities.
“The decision could affect hundreds of illegal immigrant students who attend community colleges, Cal State and UC campuses and who say they would not be able to afford a higher education if required to pay out-of-state tuition, which can cost more than triple the amount that residents pay,” the Times reads.
The justices will be hearing a case that began with a lawsuit filed by out-of-state students and their parents who argue that such a benefit violates federal law, since students from out of state are required to pay tuition that is higher than undocumented immigrant students pay.
Parents at Firebaugh High tried conducting the essay contest last year, but according to parent Lynne Robles, it fell through the cracks.
“Going to college isn’t easy for anybody,” Robles said. “So this year, we did everything we could to make this happen, not only to hand out this scholarship in the name of Marco Firebaugh, but to remind our kids about Marco Firebaugh and his fight for students of undocumented parents to go to college.”
The parent club, along with Firebaugh administrators, will hand out the scholarship during a March 19 event at the high school at 6 p.m. The event will also honor the late assemblyman who died March 21, 2006.
“The purpose of the event is to honor and remember Marco Antonio Firebaugh and to foster a new conversation of awareness for the support of AB 540 students, their families, and the community,” Robles said.
The amount of the scholarship isn’t much, but the message behind it is priceless, the parent said.
Even though the contest is open only to Firebaugh’s AB 540 graduating seniors, Robles extends an invitation to the entire Lynwood community to attend and celebrate Firebaugh’s vision “for our students.”
Friday is the last day students will be allowed to submit their essays.
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