![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.theavtimes.com\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/AVC.jpg\" "\\"AVC\\"")
<\/a>Donte Carney agreed.<\/p>\n\u201cWhy not?\u201d he said. \u201cThey put in three years at a high school and they did well enough to move on to college. I mean it\u2019s supposed to be America, home of the free, right?\u201d<\/p>\n
Ashley Mejia said she knows people who want a better life, but because they don\u2019t have the money and are undocumented, they can\u2019t get it.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only do people here have the freedom to get financial aid because they have papers and they were born here, but some of them don\u2019t take advantage of it and they rather just play around with the money,\u201d Mejia said. \u201cPeople with no papers want to go to school but they can\u2019t because they don\u2019t get money.<\/p>\n
Chris Finch said he disagrees with the Dream Act.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf someone is not a citizen of this country, they shouldn\u2019t be able to have those rights,\u201d Finch said. \u201cEven though they\u2019ve been here for three years, they weren\u2019t here legally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some students were uncertain about the bill. Arielle Manning-Jones said she had one major concern.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you know if they\u2019re held to the same standards?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n
Barbara Bransford said she thinks it would be wise to have a trial period to test if it will work or not.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean if they\u2019re all flunking out of college, it\u2019s not going to be worth it, but if they are making it in college, yes, I think everyone has the right,\u201d Bransford said. \u201cI think there should be statistics kept on how well they do in college.\u201d<\/p>\n
Branford added that these standards shouldn’t just be for illegal immigrants.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hear stories of people who drop out as soon as they get financial aid,\u201d she said. \u201cI think that should be looked at, too.”<\/p>\n
Alejandro Gallo said he was also concerned about students dropping out of school once they got their financial aid money.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s fair if they\u2019re just trying to study, but if it\u2019s other things like they\u2019re just trying to get the money and leave then it\u2019s not fair,\u201d Gallo said.<\/p>\n
Alicia Aries said she supports the Dream Act, but is worried about how it will affect the rest of the students receiving financial aid.<\/p>\n
According to the California Department of Finance, however, an estimated 2,500 additional students will qualify for Cal-Grants as a result of the Dream Act, at a cost of $14.5 million. Because the Cal-Grant program costs $1.4 billion, only about 1 percent\u00a0 of all Cal-Grant funds could be affected.<\/p>\n
Bobby Cole said he was divided on the issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they\u2019ve already been here for three years, yeah give them a chance, but I really don\u2019t appreciate them,\u201d Cole said.<\/p>\n
Cole explained how in the workplace, you have to be bilingual now.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I go to get a job now, they ask ‘are you bilingual?’ and I don\u2019t like that,\u201d he added. \u201cI understand melting pot and all that stuff, but I think you got to consider this is built on English. If you don\u2019t know English you can\u2019t get anywhere right?\u201d<\/p>\n
Others at AVC said the Dream Act will give undocumented students a better life.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy general thought is that if they\u2019re here already, I don\u2019t see why it would be a problem,\u201d Josh Gottlieb said. \u201cIf people are here already I would rather they be educated than not.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGive them a chance because there are a lot of immigrants who migrate from where they come from to make a better life,\u201d Charles Farodolu said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LANCASTER \u2013 Many students of Antelope Valley College (AVC) Monday said they supported the California Dream Act, which will allow undocumented students who meet certain in-state tuition requirements to apply for and receive financial aid and Cal grants starting January 2013. To be eligible, the students must have gone to a California high school for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":3246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3240"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}