Colin
Powell wrote an inspiring article in the Wall Street Journal titled “What
American Citizenship Makes Possible.”
Its
ostensible purpose was to argue on behalf of immigrants and their contribution
to our nation.
But
in the course of making his case, he told a story about himself. His parents
were immigrants from Jamaica. If they had chosen to go to England, he might
have ended up as a sergeant. But as an American, he had the opportunity to rise
to the top of the nation’s military. Why? Because of his free public education,
from grade school through university.
The
key paragraph:
“I’m
a public-education kid, from kindergarten through to Morris High School in the
South Bronx and, finally, City College of New York. New York University made me
an offer, but tuition there was $750 a year. Such a huge sum in 1954! I would
never impose that on my parents, so it was CCNY, where back then tuition was
free. I got a B.S. in geology and a commission as an Army second lieutenant,
and that was that. And it all cost my parents nothing. Zero.”
This
article is especially enjoyable to see in the Wall Street Journal, because the
WSJ is the nation’s most passionate media supporters of charters and vouchers.
It never, never has a good word for public schools.
Read
what Colin Powell wrote:
Only in America
could the son of two poor Jamaican immigrants become the first
African-American, the youngest person and the first ROTC graduate from a public
university to hold those positions, among many other firsts. My parents
arrived—one at the Port of Philadelphia, the other at Ellis Island—in search of
economic opportunity, but their goal was to become American citizens, because
they knew what that made possible.
Immigration is a
vital part of our national being because people come here not only to build a
better life for themselves and their children, but to become Americans. With
access to education and a clear path to citizenship, they routinely become some
of the best, most-patriotic Americans you’ll ever know. That’s why I am a
strong supporter of immigration-law reform: America stands to benefit from it
as much as, if not more than, the immigrants themselves.
Contrary to some
common misconceptions, neighborhoods with greater concentrations of immigrants
have lower rates of crime and violence than comparable nonimmigrant
neighborhoods, according to a 2015 report from the National Academies of
Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Foreign-born men age 18-39 are jailed at
one-quarter the rate of native-born American men of the same age.
Today’s
immigrants are learning English at the same rate or faster than earlier waves
of newcomers, and first-generation arrivals are less likely to die from cardiovascular
disease or cancer than native-born people. They experience fewer chronic health
conditions, have lower infant-mortality and obesity rates, and have a longer
life expectancy.
My parents met
and married here and worked in the garment industry, bringing home $50 to $60 a
week. They had two children: my sister Marilyn, who became a teacher, and me. I
didn’t do as well as the family hoped; I caused a bit of a crisis when I
decided to stay in the Army. “Couldn’t he get a job? Why is he still in the
Army?”
We were a
tightknit family with cousins and aunts and uncles all over the place. But that
family network didn’t guarantee success. What did? The New York City public
education system.
I’m a
public-education kid, from kindergarten through to Morris High School in the
South Bronx and, finally, City College of New York. New York University made me
an offer, but tuition there was $750 a year. Such a huge sum in 1954! I would
never impose that on my parents, so it was CCNY, where back then tuition was
free. I got a B.S. in geology and a commission as an Army second lieutenant,
and that was that. And it all cost my parents nothing. Zero.
After CCNY, I
was lucky to be among the first group of officers commissioned just after the
Army was desegregated. I competed against West Pointers, against grads from
Harvard and VMI and the Citadel and other top schools. And to my surprise, I
discovered I had gotten a pretty good education in the New York City public
schools. Not only in geology and the military, but also in wider culture. I had
learned a little about music, about Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” and theater
and things like that. I got a complete education, all through public schools,
and it shapes me to this day.
This amazing
gift goes back to 1847 when the Free Academy of the City of New York was
created with a simple mandate: “Give every child the opportunity for an
education.” And who would pay for it? The citizens and taxpayers of New York
City and State. They did it and kept at it when the Academy became CCNY in
1866, because they knew that poor immigrants were their children. They were the
future.
They still are.
Today some 41 million immigrants and 37.1 million U.S.-born children of
immigrants live in the U.S. Taken together, the first and second generations
are one-quarter of the population. While some countries, like Japan and Russia,
worry that population decline threatens their economies, America’s economic
future vibrates with promise from immigrants’ energy, creativity and ambition.
Every one of
these people deserves the same educational opportunities I had. It wasn’t, and
isn’t, charity to immigrants or to the poor. Those early New Yorkers were
investing in their own future by making education and citizenship accessible to
“every child.” They knew it—and what a future it became!
We still have
that model. But today too many politicians seem to think that shortchanging
education will somehow help society. It does not. It hurts society. We need
people who know that government has no more important function than securing
the terrain, which means opening the pathways to the future for everyone,
educating them to be consumers, workers, leaders—and citizens.
We are all
immigrants, wave after wave over several hundred years. And every wave makes us
richer: in cultures, in language and food, in music and dance, in intellectual
capacity. We should treasure this immigrant tradition, and we should reform our
laws to guarantee it.
In this
political season, let us remember the most important task of our government:
making Americans. Immigrants—future Americans—make America better every single
day.
Gen.
Powell was secretary of state (2001-05); chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
(1989-93); and national security adviser (1987-89). This is adapted from his
comments at a May 25 forum hosted by Carnegie Corporation of New York and the
Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership at City College of New
York.