Oiste?

To The Editor:

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

I’m a mom, I live on Clewley Road in Medford and I have three daughters. A year ago my husband lost his job and until two months ago when he got hired at a local hardware store, I was providing our sole source of income. Since he lost his job we have had trouble paying our bills and keeping up with the mortgage.  While all of this has been happening I have not told my three daughters, who are age 13, 16, and 18. They will learn of the difficulty their father and I have been having after the publication of this letter.

My eldest daughter is now in her first year at UMass, Amherst. UMass is a fine school and we are lucky to have such a great public university in our state. We are also fortunate that because we are residents of this state, my daughter gets a very significant tuition break. I will likely need to send my other two daughters to public universities in Massachusetts due to our recently depleted economic resources. This tuition break is huge for me and my husband. To some people, just a few thousand dollars a year doesn’t mean much, but to us, it means sending my daughters to community college or to UMass Amherst, recently rated one of the top five universities in the world.

I have recently learned that my State Senator Pat Jehlen, a woman I know little about, fervently supports giving the lowered cost for tuition at state universities to residents of Massachusetts that are not legal residents of the state. She says, “Many of them are valedictorians and have lived here all their life…they also still pay all of the fees at the Universities.” This may be true, and though I do not begrudge them or their families, the fact is that my husband and I are lifelong Massachusetts residents. We both grew up in Medford, and in fact went to private schools, and sent our three daughters to private schools. We never asked the state for anything. We always paid our taxes and obeyed the laws of the Commonwealth.

Now that we find ourselves in a very difficult economic situation, we have decided to utilize the very great public educational resources this state has to offer by sending our daughters to UMass. We all hear about how the State’s resources are depleting as we dip into the rainy day fund, and rely on federal monies to keep us afloat.  If we start giving breaks to residents of Massachusetts that are here illegally, how will there be enough to give a break to me and my daughters? I often hear about how many of these students have worked hard and deserve this break, and as Senator Jehlen says, ‘They pay some taxes,’ (A quick YouTube search for Pat Jehlen reveals a video documenting these quotes). Well, to that I would say, my daughters worked extremely hard to earn good grades to go to the best colleges, that they deserve to have a break on their tuition, that my eighteen-year old has held a part-time job since she was sixteen, and paid taxes on every dollar she’s earned. When will Senator Jehlen start advocating on my daughters’ behalf? We are here too, and we too need help. At what point will my voice become one that needs to be heard, that needs representation?

Lastly, there is an organization here in Massachusetts called Oiste?, which in Spanish means have you heard me. This group advocates on behalf of Latinos in Massachusetts, included those ‘out of status,’ or illegal. The group pushes for those it represents to have increased access to benefits that legal residents of Massachusetts enjoy.

To Senator Jehlen and others in the Massachusetts legislature who are advocating for everyone else except me and my girls, I would like to know: Where is the advocacy group for me, my husband and my daughters? Where is the Oiste for all the rest of us? Have you heard me?

Nina D’Agostino
Medford, MA

Reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML6YRJZsVSU