What Miner said is a load of CARP. I have tried to get into classes and cannot because international students and classes that are cut. International students are given early/priority registration so classes are already filled before I have the chance to register. I have been a California resident ALL my life and cannot get equal treatment at a California college. True, international students do pay a higher fee which does give the college more money. Also, they must take a full load each quarter or they will not be allowed to attend and could be sent back to their countries. These students also apply and get jobs in the area. We are already have the highest unemployment rate in the Bay Area. Foothill and De Anza need to educate the local people first so we may get jobs and be productive. It is not fair for the local, California residents to be denied classes.

Typical scam at the expense of taxpayers. Diversity my butt. The Asian students that attend have no interest of integrating at all, intermingling with native students, just take, take, take. The system is all set up for foreigners to take advantage of while we foot the bill and wait in line.

Marie, you don't know what the hell you're talking about. By law, those international students CANNOT get jobs in the area while here; their visas explicitly disallow such employment.

Not only do they pay more than resident students, they have to pay the true cost of their attendance and cannot receive any public aid. Because they pay full freight but their marginal cost is much less, their fees are mostly pure profit for the district and (pay attention here) go on to fund programs that ALL students benefit from.

They also cannot enroll in programs that are impacted. So they are not displacing any resident students. If you are having issues with getting a spot on classes, blame ALL the Foothill students around you since enrollment in classes is based on total Foothill units already passed and if you were enrolled in the previous quarter.

Stop whining and grow up a little.

You may or may not believe of what I am going to say about the International Student. Yes, International student brings revenues for the College but the advantage of it, they are given a job in campus. I hosted an asian itnernational student last year and she was given a job at the International Student Office. The job she is holding right now is supposed to be given to the local student. I think this is not fair for the local student. They look for a job after 3 mos. they are in US. Some of them works somewhere and paid under the table. How do I know this, I asked the student that I hosted last year and she told me that she is working in campus. This is really unfair for the local student who are struggling to get a summer job. I do not agree with this system. The International Student should not be issued a Social Security, should not work be given a job in this country and their visas should not be reclassified, and they should go back to their country after their 2 years or four years of schooling. I asked this student how did she get her social security number and she told me that the school help her out. I am against this system. They are here to get their education but not to displaced the local student.They have all benefits that local student have including getting a job. I think the law regarding the International Student needs to be look at by the government ten times. If you are going to read the immigration law regarding International Student, it says that they can get a job especially if their major are in sciences and business. The Immigration law has been bended for a decade when it comes to International student. I am currently hosting another International Student and I am pretty sure this will not go back to her contry.

If a community college district were to lose even half of the revenue quoted in this story, there would be cuts in classes being offered, which I suspect would mean fewer local people would have access to classes. The state is dealing with reduced tax revenue due to the recession and would not make up this shortfall. In calculating the cost, remember to look at the alternatives.

If a community college district were to lose even half of the revenue quoted in this story, there would be cuts in classes being offered, which I suspect would mean fewer local people would have access to classes. The state is dealing with reduced tax revenue due to the recession and would not make up this shortfall. In calculating the cost, remember to look at the alternatives.

There is more afoot than that article shows...it's well known what groups get financial aid, and what groups do not.

1. No foreign students should take seats if legal residents/US citizens are being denied seats and classes. US taxpayers pay for the public colleges and US citizens should not be denied opportunities in order to accommodate foreign students.

The argument of diversity is specious, since the US welcomes more immigrants than any country in the world. We have a very diverse culture and student body, and diversity of thought is more important than skin color or country.

2. If public colleges want to give preferences to foreign students and deny classes to US citizens, then the colleges should not accept taxpayer money, federal grants or aid, etc. The colleges should become private schools and then they can cater to whomever they prefer.

3. Illegal immigrants should be considered foreign students and should not be able to displace or deny a seat to a US citizen. If a college has open seats after all US citizens, who have applied, have been given the opportunity to take classes and/or enroll, then foreign students and illegal immigrants could be offered the empty seats. But, the illegal immigrants should be required to pay the higher tuition that the foreign students pay and illegal immigrants and foreign students should not receive grants, scholarships, tuition breaks, jobs, etc., those should be reserved for US citizens.

4. Maybe Foothill/De Anza should quit sponsoring and hosting math classes for middle schools students (mainly illegal immigrants) and use the money saved to offer more classes to US citizens.

Miner, Murphy and John the Boy are some of those liars that have helped decimate American education for this generation and probably the next.

First of all, the majority of the foreign students take high-level math and science classes even though they took the same subjects in high school and in college in their own countries. These students already know the subjects very well.

The teachers at Foothill and De Anza love this situation because they don't have to teach and they don't have to learn to teach better. In fact, their teaching ratings go up because they have so many students passing with flying colors. This allows the professors to kick out poorly performing students, mostly Americans in their late teens and early twenties but who had trouble in high school. Thankfully, the teachers' numbers are not affected by pesky local trouble-makers. I did not hear this situation mentioned in the article.

Second, the foreign students take up slots for transfers to UC and Cal State universities. However, that shouldn't matter to John the boy, Miner the embryo and Murphy the microbe because Americans don't matter. Foothill brags about their transfer programs on their page for international students so it must be good for them.

"Foothill has an outstanding reputation and transfer agreements with many of the region's universities, such as Santa Clara, San Jose State University, UC Santa Cruz, San Francisco State, Mills College, and more."

I have known many Foothill and De Anza local students who had to transfer to their second or third choices or who had to wait another semester or quarter before enrolling through the transfer programs because foreign students from Foothill or De Anza were placed higher. With the budget crisis, the transfer quotas will probably go down.

Foreign students do take away campus jobs from local students right now and four years later they take away jobs in the real market place. This is a cycle of devastation for the next generation of Americans.

American education is a joke, and if Foothill and De Anza want to be jokes, then they should be SHUT DOWN and everyone there FIRED. If these colleges stop educating the locals, then the colleges stopped serving their purpose. Why do they exist?

One thing that is not clear from the article is the number of full-time students or the number of the students who transfer. Those students, not the once-in-the-blue-moon or evening students, are harmed. In fact, the article does not use the word "transfer" at all. Out of those numbers: transfers or full-time, how many are foreigners?

It is INSANE for a country suffering double-digit unemployment to accept ANY immigrats, legal or illegal.

Open immigration and "free trade" are destroying this country.

Rather than blaming immigrants willing to work hard, whether it's in the classroom or the workplace, maybe it's time for a little self-reflection. I have read where the current generation of Americans will be the first generation to be less educated than their parents. Too many parents in our society choose not to get involved in their kids' education, our schools have allowed the inmates (students and parents) to take charge of the asylums (schools), and too many young people (not all!) simply do not have the self-discipline or ambition to see the benefit of education and apply themselves. I read this weekend where the U.S. rates #12 in the percentage of people with college degrees. In the era of a knowledge economy, this is a recipe for disaster.

We are local (live in Los Altos) and my son goes to Foothill. Most of the times he can not register for classes needed for his transfer to UC because the classes are full when he can go on line. He can not get a job on campus either - international students have permission to work on campus only, so they are given a priority.

Last month Berkeley announced that they will cut admission of the CA students by 30% and will give priority to out-of-state and international students to get more money.

Education system does not seem to be too friendly to the local students at all!

The comments from the District spokesperson about finances needs to be taken at face value - the international students are 8.4% of the student population and bring in 'about 10%' of the operation revenue. It is obviously not true that they are contributing 'nearly nine times' the per person revenue as local students. The Master Plan for Higher Education never envisioned community colleges as magnets for international students (or the overly large percentages of high school graduates admitted by UC and CSU). Just like CSU PhD programs - the international student programs represent 'institutional creep', local community college presidents wanting to have international pull. I think the community needs to decide - and tell our Trustees- if after 11 years, we want to continue this "new function" of local community colleges.

I don't.

Let's consider the alternatives. If we disallow foreign students in attending community colleges, what are the potential impacts?

1. Less income for community colleges.

2. Less classes and seats for all students.

3. Increased tuition for all students.

4. Increased parcel taxes.

5. Less diversity. There is value in having overseas students, that bring with them their culture and their work ethic, both of which can enrich our country if we are paying attention.

The fact is, America's attraction has been its open borders and acceptance of foreigners, who in turn have contributed to this country in brain power, sweat, and money.

The argument that this country can be "enriched" through increased "diversity" and foreign culture and "work ethics" is bogus. It never applies to any other country, just ours. For some reason, we just don't measure up by ourselves.

Really? I guess the American Indians should have kicked us "foreigners" out as well then.

Or maybe we should have kicked out the Irish and Poles when they started coming over.

Or how about the Chinese and Japanese?

That's the problem with this, where do you start, and where do you end?

America has enjoyed a reverse brain-drain for many years, to the detriment of their home countries and to our benefit. Sadly, this is beginning to change.

And don't tell me that Pad Thai, Tacos, Chow Mein, or Pizza doesn't enrich our culture, or at the very least, our palates.

"'It is true that the program brings in unrestricted revenue to the district,' Murphy said. But, according to him, if the district did not get the revenue generated by international student tuition, the colleges would have to cut back on programs. Instead, 'we are able to offer more programs to local students.'"

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This statement acknowledges, without apology, that Foothill and DeAnza "community" colleges are designed to *rely* on foreign tuition. Apparently this is a means of rationalizing the ridiculously low cost per credit for local students. But this is all smoke and mirrors. The obvious business case for this decision, it seems, is more likely to provide a technically trained, visa-based work force to Silicon Valley tech companies who can then hire them for much less than they could hire local talent. Convenient.

The difference I see is that past generations of immigrants didn't come here to attend bargain basement colleges at the taxpayers expense with others claiming that they were "enriching" US culture through increased "diversity", "foreign culture" and "work ethics". Call a spade a spade. Pass immigrants, like current ones, came here for jobs and opportunities they had to work for without subsidies like this one, many of which have dried up. Let the immigrants come and give them the same things past generations of immigrants received. Yeah, right. They'd be howling for mama and a lawyer if that ever happened.

And the American Indians put up a hec of fight to kick us all out as well. Unfortunately they lost. Now days, we just roll over and pay more taxes.

This reminds of something that happened back in the 70's. Someone I knew was working at a bank in Palo Alto helping people open new accounts. One day there was a foreign student at Stanford opening a savings account. It turned out that the money to go into the savings account was some sort of government assistance check that the student had received for tuition or books or that sort of thing. This was annoying because as Americans, we were not getting any government checks, plus this person obviously didn't need the assistance because they were just putting it in savings.

Operations funds are not the only $ that this District gets. There is also the property tax bond funds that local taxpayers pay for the classrooms and other facilities. This is not in the District's 'public calculations' because it would obviously raise the cost per imported foreign student. There is PLENTY of DIVERSITY in the existing high school students of Santa Clara county. Mexican, Vietnamese, Chinese, Indian, and Filipino for the largest percentages I have seen in the high schools. THESE LOCAL FAMILY STUDENTS deserve preference for the seats in the college that their immigrant parents help pay for! (IMO)

I'm not saying "disallow", but rather - don't subsidize with a public recruitment program (which includes campus part-time jobs).

Former Blossom Valley neighborhood resident - I grew up there. Here's another story from the 70's that maybe demonstrates how deeply seated this trend is. When I came back from Viet Nam and the Marine Corps, I enrolled at Foothill. Even with the G.I. Bill back then,and a part-time job, it was all I could do to get by. I will never forget the fact that I was unable to get a job on campus because those jobs were all taken by foreign students who had more money tied up in the clothes they wore to school one day, than I had to my name. Then, like now, there were alot of us veterans just getting home. The treatment apparently hasn't changed. The foreign students may well be hard workers. We thought we had kind of put in a few tough hours ourselves.

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