Arguing to make GCE more inclusive

    For the winter term of my junior year, I am taking a class called A Nations Argument. Our second unit is called antithesis and we have been learning about contradiction. As a part of our learning, we went to the University of Illinois Chicago and spoke with Professor Clarno about contradictions in American history, specifically as they apply to racial inequality. We also watched a lecture by Professor Blight of Yale which was about the United States as it approached the Civil War. As an application of our learning, we read the school's handbook and searched for contradictions within it.

    At GCE lab school there is a family handbook that outlines the rules of the school. The school is based upon the Sustainable Development Goals created by the United Nations. SDG #4 outlines the goals for education and supports the claim that schools should be equitable, and accessible to all students. In the Family handbook, it outlines the requirements for enrollment and it creates a contradiction between the goals of the school and how they allow people to become students.

"Required Enrollment Documentation

In compliance with Illinois state law, students will be excluded from school after October 15th if required records have not been submitted. 

Copy of Student Birth Certificate, Passport, or State ID…"

    This law makes education only available to people who can provide such documentation, primarily those who are citizens of the United States. In the state of Illinois, 4% of the population is undocumented and will therefore struggle with their access to education. Passports and State IDs are difficult to obtain as an immigrant. In many other countries, birth certificates are only sometimes issued. By requiring such documents you disable access to GCE for everyone and make it only for those with proper documentation.

The syllogism presented by the school is as follows:

P1: Illinois state law requires a birth certificate, passport, or state ID to enroll in a school.

P2: GCE is a school in Illinois.

P3: To operate as a school, GCE must follow the laws of the state.

C: Therefore students need such documentation to enroll at GCE.

    Education should be a human right and all should be given access to it. Creating limitations on who can enroll at schools, especially ones that can be more educational than public schools, limits the right to education for all.

    Not all students can provide the documents required to enroll at GCE. The school should change what is needed to become a student so that they can be accessible to a larger audience.

The argument for amending this rule is as follows:

P1: All high school students deserve the ability to attend GCE.

P2: Not all high school students have access to the documents needed to enroll at GCE.

P3: There are ways for immigrants to have their own forms of identification.

C: GCE should accept other forms of identification.

    In the City of Chicago, there is a form of valid and government-issued ID, CityKey, that can be available to all of the city's residents. If schools were to accept this it would make the enrollment process easier for those who are not American citizens. If this program was made available state-wide, the law stating what documents are accepted for school enrollment could be amended allowing for more groups of people to attend school in the state.


    In 1882, Congress passed an act to restrict Chinese immigrants. It provided a ten-year ban on all laborers coming from China. The act also restricted the rights of Chinese people who had already moved to the United States. After this expired was the Geary Act which prolonged the ban on laborers, regulated immigration, and made all Chinese Americans vulnerable to deportation. This was the first time the US government prohibited the admittance of an ethnic group, and even today government officials work to make immigration harder for those from working-class backgrounds. Restricting the rights of people just because they weren't born in this country is unjust and the entire system of immigration is overly complicated and made to discourage sanctuary.

    The fourteenth amendment of the US Constitution granted citizenship to all those born in the United States. By being a citizen you are granted access to more rights and have more opportunities for education. Citizenship is difficult to receive for those who aren't born in this country and therefore the rights granted to citizens are hard to obtain for immigrants.

    If this school rule is amended it will make the school a more inclusive place and increase its impact. If the school loosens restrictions on the necessary documents for enrolment it will allow more people to apply and the school will become more diverse and equitable.

PC - student at GCE with ID - 2023

    When talking to senior MD about this change in policy they stated, “I think that it’s important the school is inclusive of undocumented students. We say we care about treating people with kindness and respect, and restricting undocumented students from school clearly goes against that. GCE prioritizes 21st-century problems, so it makes more than sense that we should address this in our social contract”

   Cosigners: 

L.A.H. 

L.S.

N.O.

Sources:

“Chicago's CityKey Program.” City of Chicago:: Chicago's CityKey Program, www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/mayor/supp_info/office-of-new-americans/Municipal-ID.html.

“Chinese Exclusion Act (1882).” National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives and Records Administration, www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/chinese-exclusion-act#:~:text=It%20was%20the%20first%20significant,immigrating%20to%20the%20United%20States.

Illinois’ Undocumented Immigrant Population - Rob Paral. robparal.com/wp-content/uploads/Illinois-Undocumented-Immigrant-Population.pdf.

“Goal 4 | Department of Economic and Social Affairs.” United Nations, United Nations, sdgs.un.org/goals/goal4.

    I have enjoyed completing this action project and am incredibly proud of how it turned out. I had a lot of fun working on this and it was interesting to learn about something new. As a citizen, I have never had to struggle with documentation and this project has made me a more empathetic person. My intention with this project is to lead some policy change at both the school level and even within the state.