When I heard recently that Gov. Ron DeSantis was urging our Legislature to take in-state tuition rates away from Dreamers like me — undocumented college students who came here as children — I became scared.
I’m about to graduate with my associate degree from Valencia College and want to go on to the University of Central Florida, then into marketing with a big Florida company like Disney or Universal Studios.
If I have to pay out-of-state rates, the tuition goes from $6,000 annually to $22,000. I simply could not afford it. And I would be among countless Dreamers whose dreams would be set back.
But when I heard the news, I also thought of my kindergarten teacher Ms. Valero.
I came to the U.S. from Mexico with my parents when I was three. Kindergarten was terrifying. I cried all the time because I did not understand English.
When my mother dropped me at school early because she had to take a long bus ride to work, Ms. Valero would be there to greet me. She worked one-on-one with me until English started making sense to me.
I went on to have many amazing teachers. But I want to say I truly believe I would have been lost forever in this new country if it hadn’t been for Ms. Valero.
I also want my state to know that I and other Dreamers receiving in-state tuition are a vital part of the Sunshine State’s future.
Since 2013, we’ve contributed $3.6 billion and paid $329 million in state and local taxes — contributions that will total $15.5 billion through 2032.
When we attain higher education, we help the state even more. Earnings in the U.S. for people with a bachelor’s or master’s degree average $27,000 and $40,000 higher than for people with only high school diplomas.
Dreamers do critical work in Florida, making up a disproportionate share of workers in essential sectors currently facing labor shortages like health care, construction, hospitality and agriculture. The Florida Hospital Association this year found an alarming nurse turnover rate of 25 percent — and projected a deficit of 59,100 nurses in Florida by 2035.
All these sectors demand not only low-skilled workers but those with degrees in health and medicine, engineering, tech, management and marketing — like the degree I am striving for.
I want to reach my fullest potential here and make my parents proud. I want to be an example for my two much younger siblings, who, having been born here, will thankfully never know the outsider-ness I’ve felt from being a Dreamer.
I desperately wanted Ms. Valero to attend my high school graduation. But she was going through chemo and couldn’t come. Recently, her husband told me she’d passed. He also told me that, years ago, she would come home and talk about the little girl from Mexico whose English was getting better every day.
I want to thrive because of Ms. Valero — a Floridian who thought I was worth coming to work early for because she saw a future for me. For nearly a decade now, in-state tuition rates have brought so many of us Dreamers closer to that future, and I beg the Florida Legislature not to take that away from us. Please — let us help Florida thrive in the years ahead.
I know Ms. Valero would want that. I’m hoping there are a lot more Ms. Valeros out there who feel the same way.
Britney Ortiz is in her second and final year at Valencia College in Orlando.
