*This program originally aired on 1/12/2010

Last year, about 65,000 graduated from American High Schools but only 5% went to college.

Illegal immigrants are not eligible for federal financial aid, so increasingly expensive higher education is often out of their reach. And, many worry that applying to college could expose their families to deportation.

Today, we’ll talk to high school students in Connecticut who want to go to college, but may not be able to because of their immigration status.

Proposed legislation to grant legal status to minors has been debated in Congress for eight years – and Connecticut has explored the idea of giving in-state tuition breaks to undocumented students. But so far, no changes have come.

Join the conversation – do you support laws that could help students who are in this country illegally? Is it a question of educational opportunity versus educational fairness?