I received a copy of this letter, written by Dr. Jill Shackleford, Superintendent to Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS). A similar letter was sent to Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS).

Senator Sam Brownback
United States Senate
303 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Brownback,

I am writing to ask for your support for The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act. The DREAM Act is bipartisan legislation that addresses the situation faced by young people who were brought to the United States years ago as undocumented immigrant children, and who have since grown up here, stayed in school, and kept out of trouble.

This proposal would create a pathway to citizenship for thousands of young students who were brought to the United States years ago as children. These children have grown up in our communities and include honor roll students, star athletes, talented artists, homecoming queens, and aspiring teachers, doctors, and U.S. soldiers.

As a school district where approximately 25 percent of our students are immigrants, here in the Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools we know that some of the students that we serve lack the proper documentation to be in the country legally, even though they have spent virtually their entire lives here. Many of these students have done everything we have asked of them, and more, and serve as role models in their schools, and in our community.

In turn, we promise all of our students that, if they do their part by learning and doing well in school, we adults will take care of the rest, and make sure that there is a place for them to make a good life for themselves. As you well know, in this country, making a good life MUST include access to, and completion of higher education. The DREAM act would give this access to all of our students, and is the right thing to do for them, but also for the rest of us. We desperately need the talent and the motivation these students bring to continue to keep this country strong.

Again, please support the DREAM Act, and help the American Dream come true for all children who live and go to school in this country.

Sincerely,

Dr. Jill Shackelford
Superintendent, Kansas City Kansas Public Schools

The Kansas Association of School Administrators is one of many educational institutions that have come out in support of the DREAM Act. With another immigration reform push about to start, it is imperative that Senators like Brownback and Roberts listen more to the reasoned voices of educators advocating for humane reform, than to the divisive and empty rhetoric of the anti-immigrant movement.