News Reader.info

Here’s a heads up that a discussion with Helen Thorpe about her book, _Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America_, starts on Monday and runs all next week.

The discussion will be hosted by Teacher as part of its book club series. I reviewed the book, which features issues affecting students who don’t have legal papers to live in this country,

on this blog when I read it back in February. The book offers insight into what it would mean for some undocumented students in the United States if the Development, Relief, and Education

for Alien Minors Act, or DREAM Act, were passed by the U.S. Congress. That proposed legislation would provide a path to legalization for undocumented youths who meet certain criteria and

serve in the military or attend college for at least two years. Just this week, Gabriella Gomez, the assistant secretary for legislation and congressional affairs for the U.S. Department of

Education, said that U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan considers passage of the DREAM Act to be a “no-brainer.” “He doesn’t understand why it hasn’t been done yet. You have a strong

advocate in the secretary and the president to get this done,” Gomez said at a White House summit on Hispanic education. Critics of the act say that it would provide amnesty for people who

have broken U.S. laws.