Higher Education

As he did last year, Rev. Dr. William Barber of the North Carolina NAACP gave his Christmas Message on the steps of the North Carolina Community College System. Rev. Barber reflected on Luke 2:7, in which Joseph and Mary are told there is no room in the inn. He called on the leaders of our state to have the courage to "open up these doors and let our children come in."

Don't you think that innkeeper might look back and wish that he had let Jesus into his his inn? Do we want to make the same mistake?

In 1795, the great state of North Carolina opened the first public institution of higher learning.

In 2008, we may become the first state to take away access to post-secondary education from an entire class of people.

Yesterday, Attorney General Roy Cooper's office issued an advisory statement that says our state's community colleges and universities should close their doors to the children of undocumented immigrants.

The AG's statement is based on the same kind of moral reasoning that southern states used to withhold public education from blacks and women. It uses a tenuous interpretation of federal law to exercise a state's rights argument, knowing full well that this state will not give undocumented immigrants the right to an education.