Just as in debt as my own kids

(I was honored to give this testimony before a State Subcommittee on "Tuition Equity" for under-documented youth. Good start to Lent--kn+)

I am Kurt Neilson, Episcopal priest and Rector or pastor of Saints Peter and Paul Parish on Portland’s East Side. For six years this coming October we have offered a Sunday Mass in Spanish, and that community has grown to nearly equal in size the English-speaking portion of our congregation. I wish to speak to you from these years of experience working for and with Latino congregants of widely varied immigration status.

An essential part of our work involves us with high-school aged young women preparing for their Quinceaneras, a popular celebration of “coming of age.” In addition to a church service usually followed by a dance, we meet with the young women and their families for “platicas” or conversations helping all involved to make this moment one of meaning and maturation.

You need to know how astounding these young women are. Some are standouts at their high schools, 4.0 students involved in community service and student government and sports. Some are average kids, decent-enough grades with parents who care enough to guide them and involve themselves in their kids’ lives. Most are somewhere in between, hard-working students who keep themselves on the straight road amidst many temptations with parents who work nights and work several jobs and who consider themselves lucky to have the kind of back-straining, foot-aching work that you may have done when you were just getting started but now do no more.

In the church service, these parents stand up shyly and say in Spanish how proud they are of their daughter, how their daughter gives light to their lives, and how they hope and pray that their daughter stays to their path with whatever good example they themselves have had the energy and presence of mind to set for her. The young woman promises the same, with the help of God.

All these young women hope and pray for is a chance to continue to study, to grow, so they too can work hard and care for their aging parents and encourage their brothers and sisters and have a career where they can serve. It is an old story really—is it sentimental to call this the “American dream”, the vision that hard work and basic values shape the lives of each new group of people in this nation of immigrants? In the end, these are Americans. Over and over, immigrants have prayed for and waited for and struggled for their chance to simply participate. Mine did, and the Irish of turn-of-the-century New York bore the marks of this struggle. Your ancestors did too, unless your blood is truly Native American.

Tuition equity is no handout. These young women and young men too only want to be as in debt to Sallie Mae as my kids are. They expect nothing free.

If we establish tuition equity, there are abundant reasons from the standpoint of justice or compassion or faith-tradition to do so. I say that, if for no other reason, let’s do this out of enlightened self-interest. The young women with whom I have worked are rich in gifts and ambition and a desire to serve. Today many of their parents are laborers. In the blink of an eye, they will be the obstetrician delivering your granddaughter’s baby. They will be the elementary school teacher helping that child learn to read. They will be the lawyer assisting in the execution of your estate. They will be the clergy administering Saints Peter and Paul when good ol’ Father Kurt is just a couple of stories that the old-timers tell. They will be seated here listening to testimony from others who also seek equality. Already they are all that and more in many places. They are strong, and they are here, and they are a gift. If we help them now, we can say that we have truly helped ourselves.