New York State Democrats should have pushed harder to make New York`s failed DREAM Act.

“While today’s outcome clearly falls well short of the kind of trailblazing most people across the state and around the country have come to expect of New York, it is just as obviously an enormous step forward that bodes well for the DREAM Act’s prospects in the near future, said Sen. Jose Peralta (D-Jackson Heights.)

Added Sen. Adriano Espaillat (D-Washington Heights): “There are no words that will ease the disappointment of this excruciatingly close vote, but the young Latino, Caribbean, African and other students who were born in countries across the world but call New York home must keep fighting.”

The only chance left for the inclusion of the $25 million allocated by the state Assembly to pay for tuition assistance for undocumented students would be for Gov. Cuomo to include the funding in his final budget.

For a short time on Thursday it seemed the New York State Dream Act could finally become a reality. But after meeting for hours, Senate majority leader Dean Skelos(R-Nassau), and co-leader Jeffrey Klein (D-Bronx) failed to include it in the Senate`s one-house budget resolution. Shame on them.

“I was hopeful until this morning,” said Assemblyman Francisco Moya (D-Queens), lead sponsor of the act, referring to its inclusion in the Senate budget. “But today everything changed.”
Although the Assembly budget bill assigns $25 million to fund the Dream Act, Gov. Cuomo also failed to include it in his budget. His words last Thursday, to the effect that the fate of the DREAM Act hinged on the Senate Republicans dropping their opposition to it, struck many as a not very artful excuse for his flaccid leadership on an issue of primary importance to Hispanics.
“The governor needs to show his leadership on this issue the same way he did it for marriage equality, minimum wage and the SAFE Act,” Moya said. “It is time for him to demonstrate he cares about the Latino community.”
In fact, after four years, discussions of the New York Dream Act, which would grant access to the state`s Tuition Assistance Program to the 3,500-plus undocumented students that graduate from public high schools each year in New York, have become an annual rite of spring in Albany, a political game of hide-and-seek in which telling who is who is extremely difficult.
“Where there is a will there is a way, and clearly there is the political will for campaign financing, but not for helping young immigrants get a college degree,” said Sen. José Peralta (D-Queens). “Senate Republicans argued against using tax dollars for campaign financing, just as they had previously argued against spending tax revenue on the Dream Act.
“But whereas the Senate`s house budget features campaign financing, it excludes the Dream Act, kicking to the curb, yet again, the hopes and aspirations of young people whose zeal to live, work, pay taxes and prosper in this great country is being held against them,” Peralta said.
The five dissident Democrats led by Klein, who share control of the Senate with the Republicans, had supposedly been holding out to include the measure in the final Senate resolution. Yet in the end they caved in to the GOP and sacrificed the Dream Act to having campaign financing included in the budget.
The Republican intransigence was expected. But the lack of commitment to push for the Dream Act by the Democratic leadership is inexcusable. One has to wonder why are they so weak on their support for something that is morally right and economically beneficial for the entire state.
Although it is by no means certain, the Senate leadership could bring the Dream Act to the floor in the coming days, even though it is doubtful the votes are there to pass it. The real reason would not be a real commitment, but for Klein and his group to mend fences with Democrats on the left who don’t think they are progressive enough.
“Even if the DREAM measure fails, Klein can say he tried,” sources told the Daily News last week. Still, Moya believes there is “momentum.”
“We are right now the closest we have ever been to passing the state Dream Act; we are knocking at the door and we need the governor and the Senate to do the right thing for all New Yorkers.”
And they should do it ASAP.

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