Erik K., a Head Start teacher in Illinois, is one of the estimated 20,000 educators who stand to lose their ability to teach America’s children if Congress fails to act on legislation protecting hundreds of thousands of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients by the end of this year. Failing to pass the DREAM Act will not only have devastating effects on program recipients and teachers like Erik, but on their young students as well:
Nationwide, an estimated 20,000 DACA-eligible teachers—many of them possessing key Spanish-language skills that are in high demand—could be plucked from the classroom if the program is phased out.
Losing that many teachers would have a huge impact on kids, said Viridiana Carrizales of Teach For America, the elite teacher-preparation program that has begun advocating for the program. “We cannot afford to lose so many teachers and impact so many students,” she said. “Every time a student loses a teacher, that is a disruption in the student’s learning.”
According to the National Head Start Association, “children that participate in Head Start programs receive innumerable benefits. These advantages appear immediately, last a lifetime, and even have an effect on other generations.” But as Erik says in the FWD.us video, “by revoking DACA you don’t just punish Dreamers, you also negatively impact people that have [gotten] to know DACAmented people … the kids would lose a person they’ve known for a third of their life. We need to make our voices heard.”
Nationally, 800,000 young immigrants stand to lose their work permits, driver’s licenses, and protections from deportation if Congress doesn’t pass the DREAM Act by the end of this year. Without their DACA protections, many young immigrants may be forced to drop out of college, and others working in fields ranging from construction to medicine will lose their ability to legally support themselves and their families. And that includes teachers like Erik:
Recent findings by the Economic Policy Institute, a D.C.-based think tank backed by labor unions, suggest that public schools are already in a teacher shortage bind: An Oct. 6 report found that given rising student populations, public schools are short by about 327,000 educators.
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten last month called Trump’s move to wind down DACA “a heartless assault on young immigrants and on our communities,” adding, “The young people covered by DACA are woven into the fabric of American society. They contribute to our economic growth and our diversity.”
Erik, who came to the U.S. from South Korea when he was just eight years old, has worked hard to achieve his dreams, and because of his drive and passion, other children may also get the chance to thrive. But instead, the only country he’s ever known as home may rip him from his young students and cast him out to a place completely unfamiliar to him.
“If I was to be sent to somewhere else that I don’t know anything about, I don’t know what I would do.” Erik said. “To people that are in power … the legislators, they have the power to pass the DREAM Act. So we have to let them know that is an urgent issue, that this needs to be solved. We have to make our voices be heard.”
