– It was so hard to read that so many Jewish students would start school and not finish. Although I knew that these students needed to get a job in order to contribute to the family income, I still couldn’t accept such as a justifiable reason. I know that income at the turn of the last century wasn’t easy to come by, but did one less income of a child in school cause the entire family to be in such dire economic needs. I believe in the long run it would have been more beneficial for Jewish children and immigrants at the time to finish school. Were people unable to rationalize the fact that by finishing school one would have a higher earning potential.

-Did people at the time only think about the here and now rather than the distant future?

-When one considers programs such as the state’s Educational Opportunity Program, there is no reason why disadvantaged students and those from immigrant household should be unable to attend college. The state college system is very conducive to accommodating to low-income families and those individuals who may not have had the best grades due to their socioeconomic standing. The only people who should be facing a problem are those individuals that are undocumented. As an undocumented individual, one can’t apply for financial aid or to college as a social security number is needed.

-Ashley Haynes