Repair Credit Report Help

Check Systems any info how to repair credit? Free credit Reports available w/ no strings attached? I'm 24 now and when I was young and stupid I trusted my ex and we got a joint checking acct. Long story short. I was told by him that he closed the acct(when we we're 19) but actually he wrote a ton of bad checks but did pay the bank. But hey put us both on "check systems". I found out after a year when I tried to get an acct at a diff bank, b/c he threw away my notification. I have no other outstanding debt. and I pay all my bills ontime! I paid off a car loan in half the time in the last two years but I did have a co-signer. So how long am I gonna be stuck! Can I get any credit cards, if so which? Is there a free no strings way of checking your credit score? I am so frustrated w/ being unable to use a charge card in case of emergencies! I know I should have one to build credit too!Any advise appreciated greatly! I got my credit reports and there is nothing negative on it I just don't have much on it! ShouldI take out loans to boost my credit score! Do I need to get my credit score too?

Does anyone know of a credit repair service that will remove one item from your credit report for free?

Other than the free credit report one can get without cost, what others are reputable.? I couldn't get my annual free credit report because my bank used it. What others are out there that I can use to repair my credit.

Does anyone have the web address for the free annual credit report? Im trying to repair my credit and want to know the status of my credit, however i cant seem to find it in any search engines, all the ones i found ask for a credit card or debit card number, i was told before that once a year we are suppose to veiw our credit report for free without having to provide a credit or debit card, which i dont have due to my bad credit.

Is there any place to get FREE credit repair advice? I don't need someone to DO anything for me, just give me advice on what ~I~ can do to improve my credit (ie: should I file bankruptcy?) My credit report is NOT inaccurate, it's just bad! OK, maybe I used the incorrect term in credit "repair", as I said, my credit report is NOT inaccurate. I am looking for advice on how to "rebuild" my credit.

Credit Repair help! I have paid every bill owed on my credit report, meaning I am debt free, READ ON? however even though all my debts are paid (what a great feeling) my credit report is a mess because these lousy creditors have not updated my report. So in reveiwing my report I am so over whelmed by the amount of items that are incorrectly reported, that I know have to fix. I simply do not have time to do this myself between work and school. Does anyone know of a trust worthy compnay that can do this for me, please list a company that works to get these items either off my report or at least updated as paid. Please list a company that you have had personal expirience with and can be relied on.

how do i get a free credit report when i;ve never had a credit card? I need my credit report so i can repair it But noone will let me get a report online without a credit card number or a credit card

i would like to find a truly free ca. site Re i can get a free credit report? i have spent hours lookinf for a free ca. site for a free credit report, i either end up on u.s. sites or ca. ones that want to charge me a bunch of money. i think our own reports should be free. i know that mine is not very good, but the more i know the more i can do to repair it. if u can help thanks amil ahead of time.

Is is possible to legally remove negative information from your credit report? I know there are websites out there that are scams and say they can get you a new credit report which is illegal, but I have also read that you can get the creditors to remove the negative marks. Is this true? Also, are there any free websites out there with legitimate information about repairing credit? I came across the Credit Secrets Bible and thought about buying it, just not sure if you could get the same info for free somewhere else.

Credit Repair? I have no idea where to start to repair my credit. They are always offering free credit reports but I am leary of that. Could someone please tell me where to start?

can I remove an negative item from my credit report? ok I am aware you can dispute negative items that appear on your credit report. And there is a lot of law firms and businesses out there who claim they can remove negative items from your credit report. But here is my issue. I have a card I was 120 days late on a few years back and I've disputed it a few times but its only been taken off temporarily to be verified on a put back on my credit report. I was with Lexingtonlaw a year back and it was just a endless cycle of disputing items on my report. The credit card companies just kept on responding with "That item has already been verified" so in the end, really none of my negative acconut statuses improved. Can you really get rid of a negative item on your credit report even if its partially true? Is the whole credit repair business just a sham because its just doing you a service that you can do just as easily yourself for free?

how to repair my credit score? Alright, so I got one of those free credit reports yesterday to check and see what my credit score is looking like. i'm almost 19 and when i turned 18 i had the plan to get 2 credit cards and spend a little bit on each one everymonth and then pay it off well with the two cards that i had signed up for i only got one and have always payed it off at the end of every month. but when i got the credit report it showed i had a terribly low score of 547 and upon closer inspection i saw that there was another credit card that was opened in my name and had 712 dollars charged to it and was deliquent and had been closed down. I assumed someone had stolen my identity and gotten the card in my name and was all upset about having to go through the long process of getting it all cleared off my report. but today i found out the card was the other card i had applied for and that when it came in the mail my mother got it and made 280 dollars of charges to it since we didn't have much money and never told me about it as the next day she had a stroke. so i contacted the collection agency that the balance was sent to and have set up for the balance to be paid.. is there anyway for me to fix my credit score because of the circumstances in which my credit was destroyed.. and pressing charges against my mother for basically stealing my credit card is not an option in my book.. please someone out there help me with this problem =[

I have paid off almost all of my debt but my credit is horrible. How can I repair it ASAP? Unfortunately, I was jobless and wasn't able to pay my bills for a whole year. Sad I know. Thankfully, I got a great job and I have just been able to pay off all my debt of $6,000 in the last two months. My credit is obviously damaged. I can't even get cable! I owe my college $500 dollars and that will be taken care of at the end of the month. So I will be free of all debt. On most of them I have negotiated with them in order to pay it off right away for cheaper rates. Does that make a difference on the credit report? Also, now that I am debt free how can I go about repairing it? I know that it takes 7 years but is there anything that can clear it sooner? Just in case the cards were Victoria Secret,Dell, Wells Fargo, Sprint then of course my schooling. Any advice will be appreciated! Thanks.

Free Credit Restoration & Debt Elimination Clients Needed!!? Hi my name is Tavarra. I own my own business by the name of Financial Destination Inc. We do Credit Restoration and Debt Elimination and a host of other services. Credit Restoration and Debt Elimination is two of our most popular Products. We are not a scam. I am a woman of God and I do not scam Gods Children. A Credit Repair Company can not charge you any up-front fees. It;s against the law. Actually our Credit Restoration Product is free. We offer other products with your monthly membership. I am a Product of the Product. I was a Real Estate Investor and I had two foreclosures on my Credit. Credit Trax was able to get one of those foreclosures deleted from my Credit Report. Credit Trax also had 3 Credit Cards Deleted from my Credit Report. 2 BOFA Credit Cards with high balances and 1 Chase Credit Card. If you want proof I will send you a copy of my Credit Report. Documentation beats conversation. please visit my website www.fdimember.com/143169 or Call me (909)331-7213 God Bless

Credit monitoring service...repairing credit, is this service necessary? I am in the process of repairing my credit. I already have the most up-to-date credit reports from the 3 major bureaus which I got for free from http://www.annualcreditreport.com While repairing my credit, having debts deleted or paid off, etc...I want to be able to see the changes happening. I can only order my credit reports for free once per year...so cannot check to make sure that collectors are erasing the debts as being requested in negotiations. I was wondering if anyone uses a "realtime" credit monitoring service (preferably that is updated daily, or everytime a change is made to the report), so that I can validate my requests are happening. I'm not so much concerned about the scoring...but if it's included, then I suppose that's a bonus. Any suggestions? Is there a way to request my FREE credit report more than once per year (e.g. tell the CRA's that I am repairing credit, and need a fresh copy, etc) without having to pay each time? Micki...you did not read my question at all. I am talking about online monitoring services, not a debt consolidator or debt management service. I am doing the work myself. Sgt Big Red, thanks for the response. Are you referring to "they" as the CRA's (Equifax, Experian, TU)? "They" make changes all the time to reports, without sending you an updated report, thus why you have to request it. Otherwise, every time someone inquires into my credit file, or reports me (adversely or positively), I would get a new credit report in the mail. I'm not so sure who you're referring to... If you mean the collection agency will send me an updated report, I wouldn't count on that either...they just want their money to settle the debt, not send me an updated report.

credit repair questions? hey all, We are trying to repair our credit for many years now. from our experience we have been sent letters back from credit companies telling us that our credit on there is valid and that they will not be changing it. My understanding is that they have to provide proof of this and yet that havnt. What is the best way of action to get these 3 companies to start removing items and what is the best site out there that provides me with all three credit reports all in one for free? Also please provide me with a couple of sites that explain in detail in help regarding steps to do and sample letters that are current that i may use to get my point across. thank you kindly please provide actual answers or i will delete the question and then no one gets any points even for just posting. Why is it that i get dumb dumb answers that are evident. The point of questions on Yahoo answers is to get info based on your question not just to post idiotic posts. thank you as well annualcredit costs money with alot of there services. And please dont provide the common answers that they can only keep info on there for 7 years we know this everyone knows this. The problem is obvious "removing this stuff" if you dont have experience in this please dont answer as you will not get points anyway. Sorry to all those that do care about answering but you have to understand my frustration with alot of kids answering on here or people that just are answering on common things they have heard. thanks again

Someone told me you can get stuff removed off your credit report...? Does anyone know the steps to repairing credit? Someone told me there were ways of just sending letters to get stuff removed form your credit, is that true? place i can go to get these letters for free?

Help! I want to repair my credit.? My credit score is bad and I would like to buy a home. I got a credit report, should I start making payments on the companies that were on my credit report or do I have to call them up to make payment arrangements? Please help. I can't get anything in my name and I am soon to be married which I know will effect my fiances credit. Any advice? Is there any services that help you for free? Websites?

Where can I get some financing for a new or used car if my credit is not too hot right now??? My credit score is 418, I lost my job last year and it took me about a year to get another one. I could not keep up with my bills and they all went into collections. I only had 4 months left to pay off my car and could not even do that, now it is showing up as a repo on my credit and I still have it. I was never late on any payments until my stroke of bad luck and now I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. I currently make $50K a year and with my bonuses and incentives I can easily make $200K. I'm a college educated sales professional, but when people are pulling up my credit report they think I'm some dead beat. It's as if no one else has ever been through rough times financially and its driving me crazy. On top of that my current car(98' Nissan pathfinder) is worth $4,500 and needs $6K in repairs. I've paid off two of my debts so far and will probably be debt free by December; but I need a car NOW. If someone can help me find financing it would be greatly appreciated. thanks!!!

WERE CAN I GET A FREE CAR FAX AUTO REPORT? every time that I go to the free car fax site it always wants me to enter a credit card number I just need a free site that I can find out what repairs have been done to my vehicle...

advice on foreclosure? For lack of a better term i was forced to take out a mortgage last year on my home that was paid for. The terms and percentages were awful but thats besides the point. My income at the time was sufficent to pay my bills and the mortgage. I ran a successful business for a little over two years until 4 months ago when things went downhill. My mortgage payment is more than most people make in my area in 2-3 paychecks and now im unemployed with a SMALL list of other monthly bills besides the mortgage. I do have about $40k in other unsecured debt from the business and other unsecured creditors from when i was young that i never took care of. I have thought about bankruptcy, chapter 13 is a no-go mostly because i cant afford the mortgage payments now so why would i waste my time with a 13?Otherwise it could work,but otherwise i dont really need a bankruptcy if were not including the house mortgage because i could just set up monthly payments with my creditors at a small payment. 7 minutes ago - 3 days left to answer. my monthly expenses are slim so im not worried about that. My problem seems to stem from my home, i have about 40k worth of equity in a 117k home. With that kind of equity, it really does not make sense to file a chapter 7 because in my state you lose all equity besides 5k no matter what. It really doesnt make sense to do a 13 because as already stated i cant afford the payments now,much less the payments to all my creditors plus the mortgage. And the only other options are selling, of which is not really an option because foreclosure has already been initiated. Or a deed in lieu of foreclosure, but then im giving them all of my equity for "free" although the foreclosure would likely not show up on my credit report and i could begin to repair the other damage.It would be faster to do this than to wait 10 years for a BK to come off the credit or 7 years for a foreclosure to come off. OR just let it be foreclosed on......thats not appealing at all ofcourse. ADVICE?

Need advice on foreclosure? For lack of a better term i was forced to take out a mortgage last year on my home that was paid for. The terms and percentages were awful but thats besides the point. My income at the time was sufficent to pay my bills and the mortgage. I ran a successful business for a little over two years until 4 months ago when things went downhill. My mortgage payment is more than most people make in my area in 2-3 paychecks and now im unemployed with a SMALL list of other monthly bills besides the mortgage. I do have about $40k in other unsecured debt from the business and other unsecured creditors from when i was young that i never took care of. I have thought about bankruptcy, chapter 13 is a no-go mostly because i cant afford the mortgage payments now so why would i waste my time with a 13?Otherwise it could work,but otherwise i dont really need a bankruptcy if were not including the house mortgage because i could just set up monthly payments with my creditors at a small payment. 7 minutes ago - 3 days left to answer. my monthly expenses are slim so im not worried about that. My problem seems to stem from my home, i have about 40k worth of equity in a 117k home. With that kind of equity, it really does not make sense to file a chapter 7 because in my state you lose all equity besides 5k no matter what. It really doesnt make sense to do a 13 because as already stated i cant afford the payments now,much less the payments to all my creditors plus the mortgage. And the only other options are selling, of which is not really an option because foreclosure has already been initiated. Or a deed in lieu of foreclosure, but then im giving them all of my equity for "free" although the foreclosure would likely not show up on my credit report and i could begin to repair the other damage.It would be faster to do this than to wait 10 years for a BK to come off the credit or 7 years for a foreclosure to come off. OR just let it be foreclosed on......thats not appealing at all ofcourse. ADVICE?

Statute of Limitations on Debts? I need some knowledgable advice on debt management. I am looking to repair my financial past but first want to educate myself before going forward. I have come across the Statute of Limitations on Debts and am wanting more info. Basically I am concerned with something in particular on my credit report. It is a $200 bill for a movie rental. It says that it will be removed 12/2009. Obviously I would rather work something out and not pay the $200 for the video. Any advice? I have lived in IL and MO and the time frame for this Statute of Limitations seems to be the same. Any other helpful advice for negotiating my debt so I can be debt free in 2009?

What do you think of the following article? EXTRA HELP When Special Education Goes Too Easy on Students Parents Say Schools Game System, Let Kids Graduate Without Skills By JOHN HECHINGER and DANIEL GOLDEN August 21, 2007; Page A1 GREENPORT, N.Y. -- On June 25, 2006, Michael Bredemeyer threw his tasseled cap in the air and cheered after getting his high school diploma. Two days later, his parents mailed the diploma back. [More Data on Mainstreaming] * * * Plus, read more about the challenges of integrating special-needs students, at WSJ.com/Mainstreaming. Michael, now 19 years old, has learning disabilities and finished high school at a seventh-grade reading level, despite scoring above average on IQ tests. The Bredemeyers say he passed some classes because teachers inflated his grades and accepted poor work. By awarding him a meaningless diploma, they say, school officials avoided paying for ongoing instruction. "I felt proud because he had worked so hard," says Michael's mother, Beverly, her voice breaking. "You don't want to take that away from him. But you knew it wasn't real. What's he going to do in the future? Will he be able to go to college and get a job?" The Bredemeyers represent a new voice in special education: parents disappointed not because their children are failing, but because they're passing without learning. These families complain that schools give their children an easy academic ride through regular-education classes, undermining a new era of higher expectations for the 14% of U.S. students who are in special education. Years ago, schools assumed that students with disabilities would lag behind their non-disabled peers. They often were taught in separate buildings and left out of standardized testing. But a combination of two federal laws, adopted a quarter-century apart, have made it national policy to hold almost all children with disabilities to the same academic standards as other students. The 1975 statute now known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act promoted putting special-education students in mainstream classrooms. The 2001 No Child Left Behind Act said schools would be punished if disabled children don't pass the same state tests as other students. It also requires states to set standards for high-school graduation rates and meet them for all students, including those with disabilities. By some measures, the extra attention is paying off. Test scores and classroom grades of disabled students are rising, and their high-school graduation rate increased to 54% in 2004 from 42% in 1996. But critics say some of the gains have come because schools have learned to game the system. For instance, federal rules allow states to make "reasonable accommodations" to help disabled students pass tests and graduate, such as allowing extra time on exams. Some schools, say critics, are giving students too much help, for instance by guiding students to the right answers on multiple-choice tests. MAKING THE GRADE • The Issue: Some parents of students with learning disabilities say their children are graduating too easily. • The Background: Federal laws raised school standards, but left loopholes. Increasingly, special-education students get special help to pass tests. • The Problem: If schools game the system, those students move on without the skills they need. From 2000 to 2005, special-education fourth graders showed more improvement in reading and math than the general population on an important benchmark test, the National Assessment of Educational Progress. But accommodations also increased. In 2005, 70% of fourth-grade special education students received some sort of accommodation while taking the math portion, up from 44% five years earlier. In reading, 63% used accommodations in 2005, up from 29% in 2000. On tests used to measure compliance with No Child Left Behind, more states are permitting students with disabilities to use calculators on arithmetic tests or have reading-comprehension tests be read aloud. Massachusetts education commissioner David Driscoll warned school administrators in February that an alarming number of special education students -- a quarter or half in some cases -- were receiving such accommodations on state exams. With unclear guidelines, "People start driving trucks through loopholes," he said in an interview. Some school districts have an informal policy against failing students with disabilities even if they miss many classes or aren't learning. "I can go into any school we represent and have somebody tell me we have to pass special education students" to avoid being blamed for not providing the right services if students fail, says Janet Horton, a Texas special-education attorney. Federal law says special-education students should receive a "free appropriate public education," but it doesn't prohibit failing them. Mardys Leeper and Carol Merrill, former teachers at West Philadelphia High School in Pennsylvania, say a special-education administrator there ordered them to pass special-education students. Ms. Leeper says she made concessions for students with disabilities, such as letting them write shorter essays or copy paragraphs she wrote onto a word processor rather than composing their own. But when those students didn't make an effort, or skipped class, both teachers say they sometimes sought to fail them -- only to have the administrator insist on passing grades. The reason they were given: Students had met the goals of their federally mandated individual education plans, IEPs, spelling out goals and services for each special-education student. "Students who weren't even participating, even trying, we couldn't fail them," says Ms. Merrill, an English teacher who retired this year. Even if they couldn't read, "I had to give them a 'D.'" The administrator couldn't be reached for comment. Brenda Taylor, head of special education for the Philadelphia school district, called the matter a "breakdown in communication." The district has no written policy against failing special-education students, she says. But rather than being "punitive" if a student performs poorly or cuts class, she says, the district prefers to revise a student's IEP. "We're not in the business of failing students," Ms. Taylor says. Only 19 states require all students to earn the same kind of diploma, according to a recent University of Minnesota survey. Some of those states let special-education students amass fewer course credits to earn the degree, the survey found. Other states give substitute certificates, in some cases called IEP diplomas, to special-education students who don't qualify for standard diplomas. Many special-education parents are happy to see their children advance through school and graduate. Reggie Felton, director of federal policy for the National School Boards Association, says special-education students learn more in regular classes even if they're given a break on assignments or grading. The federal government recently decided to triple the percentage of students allowed to take easier tests, to 3% from 1%. Some legislators have proposed exempting more students. But the rebellion against too-easy passing is growing, says Pam Wright, who with her husband has co-authored books on special education issues and operates a Virginia-based information clearinghouse for special-education parents. She estimates she now receives more than 1,000 email messages a year from parents lamenting that their children with disabilities take mainstream courses but aren't being taught as much as their classmates. Dozens of parents have contended in recent administrative appeals that their children did not deserve the diplomas they received, she says. The family of Alba Somoza, who has cerebral palsy and speaks only with the help of a computer, filed one such case. Alba drew national attention in the 1990s when her family successfully pushed to include the then-third grader in a regular classroom. Then-President Bill Clinton backed her cause, and Alba, now 23, graduated with honors from a New York City high school in 2002. Last year, Alba and her family filed an administrative case claiming her education was a sham. A school report prepared weeks before she graduated showed she had language and math skills at an elementary school level, court records show. "You cannot shunt children through -- you cannot scam them through the system," says Alba's mother, Mary. [Michael Bredemeyer] Since shortly after she graduated, New York has been paying for a special program for Alba that costs $400,000 a year -- including a full-time teacher, an aide, transportation and extensive technology. The city says it is doing so out of compassion, not legal obligation. The family is seeking to continue the public funding another year to help Alba receive enough education to work as a museum docent. The Somozas lost the administrative case, but a judge in U.S. District Court in Manhattan ruled in the family's favor earlier this year and ordered another hearing. Rather than develop a program that would help Alba reach her academic goals, teachers lowered the curriculum's "level of difficulty" and removed "large and meaningful portions of its substantive content," the judge said. One teacher testified that he did most of the work on Alba's final project in 2002. New York officials say the school properly adapted the curriculum for a severely disabled student. In northern California, Jennifer McGowan, an 18-year-old who is deaf in one ear and suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and learning disabilities, was supposed to graduate from Vacaville Unified School District in June. She didn't get her diploma -- because her family won a court injunction to stop it. In an interview, Jennifer said she often received A or B grades for poorly completed work or, at times, when she didn't do assignments at all or show up for class. Achievement tests she took in January 2005 showed that she had the math and reading skills of an elementary-school student, according to her administrative complaint. The school district denies her grades were inflated and said she showed her proficiency by passing a high-school exit exam. John Aycock, Vacaville's superintendent, said teachers did "a great job working with Jennifer." Jennifer says she failed the exit exam several times despite intensive preparation. "They just wanted to pass me and let me fly by," she says. The school system says it's not unusual to make several attempts to pass. At the Mercer Island school district in Washington state, the family of a girl with severe learning disabilities complains that, instead of the intense instruction she needed to master reading and math in eighth and ninth grades, teachers showered her with accommodations: a peer note-taker, a peer to read materials to her, oral exams, reduced assignments and a calculator on math tests. At an administrative hearing, the family -- whose names are not disclosed in the court papers -- sought to force the school system to pay for her private schooling. Noting her strong A and B grades, the district successfully argued that accommodations were helping her learn. In U.S. District Court in Seattle, a judge hearing an appeal of the case disagreed last year, saying the system improperly relied on accommodations rather than instruction, and has returned the case to a hearing officer to determine financial relief for the family. Boxes of school correspondence and Michael Bredemeyer's old tests and assignments line the hallways of his family's weather-beaten saltbox house in Orient, N.Y., on Long Island's North Fork. Michael's parents are demanding public funding for more services until age 21, to which students are entitled unless they graduate, so he can improve his academic skills for college. John Bredemeyer, a county public-health inspector, and his wife, Beverly, had high hopes for Michael, who has a strong work ethic and a knack for repairing machines. But once he entered public middle school in nearby Greenport, his parents worried that teachers were letting him skate through classes and tests. Michael, who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and learning disabilities including dyslexia, says in some classes he "definitely earned" a passing grade, but others were "borderline." He took regular classes except for one period a day. "A little more one-on-one" instruction would have helped, he says. On state achievement exams, Michael's IEP permitted him extra time, simplified instructions and guidance from a teacher to slow him down if he rushed through answers. But when he completed the eighth-grade math test, his special-education teacher also took him to the resource room and directed him to redo problems he had answered incorrectly. According to a memo from Greenport Superintendent Charles Kozora, the teacher "exceeded the intent" of Michael's accommodations, boosting his score. The state investigated and invalidated Michael's test. [Revolt] Mr. Kozora said the school system had only two cases of testing irregularities in six years, few conflicts with parents over special education and "many successes" among students with disabilities. The district says achievement, and not cost, dictates its decisions on graduating students. When Michael was a junior at Greenport High, his chemistry teacher passed him with the minimum grade of 65, even though he says he spent much of the class doodling and playing solitaire on his laptop. Checking his assignments and tests, his parents couldn't understand how he could be passing. In a letter, the school principal acknowledged that the final grade was a "miscalculation" and should have been 56.6, or an F. The school offered to let him make up his lost credits by volunteering in the town library. When his parents balked, he was instead placed in courses in sociology and psychology. On one psychology pop quiz, five of Michael's seven answers were marked wrong, but a failing grade was crossed out on the paper and a passing score of 65 was substituted. The school district declined comment. For a senior English assignment, he received an A for one untitled paragraph. "I believe competition today has changed dramatically," he wrote. "Back in the day, sports was some of the only sports that had competition. Today, everyone wants to compete and only be successful. School work, school sports, major league sports, all involve high amounts of success and competition. Competition today has become very extreme." His English teacher, Michael Connolly, said he didn't remember the assignment and had no comment on the grade. On standardized tests, Michael had mixed results: On the SATs, which have a 200 to 800 scale, Michael received 330 and then 370 in two tries on the reading test, in the bottom 10% of all students nationally. On math, he scored 460 both times. He failed two state exams and passed five others. His school grades put him in the bottom one-third of his class. A month before graduation, the Bredemeyers debated whether he should accept the degree. "I wanted to have it," Michael says. "Get it and forget it." On graduation day, a school band played "Pomp and Circumstance." Michael's parents, his sister, his grandmother, aunts and uncles watched as he walked up to the podium and a school official handed him a purple diploma case with his name etched in gold letters. Michael says he knew his parents might not let him keep it. "I had a feeling they'd do something like that," he said, shrugging. "I'll eventually get it back, one of these days, months, years." This summer, Michael has been mowing lawns and picking up trash at a state park for $9 an hour. This fall, he plans to enter his second year at Suffolk County Community College, which does not require a high-school diploma. Last semester at Suffolk, he received a D-plus in freshman composition, D's in statistics and Western Civilization and an F in the history of rock 'n' roll. Write to John Hechinger at john.hechinger@wsj.com and Daniel Golden at dan.golden@wsj.com RELATED ARTICLES AND BLOGS Related Content may require a subscription | Subscribe Now -- Get 2 Weeks FREE Related Articles from the Online Journal • The Kids Are All Right • School Choice and Racial Balance • Back to Failing Schools • Tort-a-licious: The Trials of Law School Blog Posts About This Topic • SaukValley.com - Serving Dixon, Sterling & Rock Falls saukvalley.com • August 14, 2007 edspresso.com More related content Powered by Sphere

Did you read this??? Illegal sent home after "free" treatment in Ariz. Chris Hawley Republic Mexico City Bureau Mar. 17, 2008 12:00 AM ECATEPEC, Mexico - When the motorcycle that illegal immigrant Laura Velázquez was riding slammed into a concrete wall, it cost a Phoenix hospital $478,000 to save her life. The hospital is footing the bill. But Velázquez's life in America is finished after hospital officials sent her back to Mexico. Velázquez's story is an example of what happens when uninsured illegal immigrants need medical care, a problem that costs American hospitals and taxpayers millions of dollars each year. It's a critical issue, because a federal program aimed at reimbursing hospitals is scheduled to disappear at the end of this year. advertisement But Velázquez's case also shows how innocent people can get ensnared in the illegal-immigration controversy. Velázquez, now 22, never asked to come to the United States; she was brought as a child. She wasn't driving the motorcycle; she was only a passenger. Her journey home has attracted the attention of Mexico's national media. Government officials in Ecatepec, her hometown on the outskirts of Mexico City, say she should have been allowed to recover in Phoenix, and they have accused the United States of indifference. Velázquez, meanwhile, lies in a dim, windowless room in a relative's home in Ecatepec and thinks about how things used to be. "I want to walk again," she said, her voice a whisper because of a tracheotomy tube. "I want to go home." Twist of fate When Velázquez was 11 years old, she and her mother climbed into a car trunk in Nogales, Sonora, and emerged again in Arizona. They moved to Laveen with her father, a landscaping worker. Velázquez learned English, attended Summit High School and had two children with her high-school sweetheart. She worked off and on at a furniture store, processing credit applications. On Jan. 26, a neighbor invited her for a ride on his motorcycle. What happened next is unclear. The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, the Arizona Department of Public Safety and the Phoenix Police Department have no record of the crash. Velázquez remembers little, her family says. But whatever happened, it was violent. When an ambulance brought her to St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, her upper spine was snapped, her left lung was collapsed, and her left leg and arm were broken. Paramedics reported that the motorcycle had hit a concrete wall, said Margaret McBride, the hospital's vice president of mission services. The driver escaped with minor injuries, said Velázquez's mother, Estela Loera. For days, Velázquez fought for her life. "The patient has been medically unstable," doctors' notes said. "Surgery has been canceled multiple times." In all, Velázquez underwent three operations to repair her spine, mend her bones and install breathing tubes. Costly care No one is sure how much uninsured illegal immigrants like Velázquez cost the United States, according to a 2004 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. That's because hospitals usually don't ask patients about their immigration status. But a study by the Border Counties Coalition estimated that illegal immigrants accounted for more than $200 million of the $845 million in unpaid medical and ambulance bills in 2002 at hospitals along the U.S.-Mexican border. By law, hospitals must treat emergency medical patients until they are healthy enough to be discharged. The cost is a serious burden for hospitals in border states. Some have had to cut back on other services. "I've had to close my OB department down, I've had to close my long-term-care facility down, because the drain on the resources doesn't allow it," said Jim Dickson, administrator of Copper Queen Community Hospital in Bisbee. "We're into rationing because of the uncompensated (care)." Under pressure from lawmakers in border states, in 2003 the federal government set aside $250 million a year to reimburse hospitals for illegal-immigrant care. But the program applies only to the first two or three days of care, and the program expires at the end of this year. Hospital trade groups are lobbying to get it renewed. As Velázquez's tab grew, hospital officials knew they would never get the money back, McBride said. So they declared her a charity case, essentially forgiving her $478,000 bill. Last year, St. Joseph's spent $17 million on such charity cases, immigrants and U.S. citizens alike. "Ultimately, it does cost the community," McBride said. "It affects the programs we can offer, the technology we can buy, the raises we can give employees." Hospital officials knew another problem was on the horizon: Velázquez would need long-term care. Without insurance or legal residency, no U.S. hospital would take her. Mexico, however, has government-run hospitals and a free, if rudimentary, socialized medical system. Coming home Velázquez arrived in Hermosillo, capital of the northern Mexican state of Sonora, in an aircraft chartered by St. Joseph's. In her immigration photo, blue-and-white breathing tubes cover her face. Relatives went to the Ecatepec government for help bringing Velázquez the remaining 1,000 miles home. That's how the Mexican press learned about her case. "Woman deported in vegetative state," read a headline in the newspaper El Universal. "Hospital that treated her reported her as illegal," read one in El Gráfico. "(Mexican) federal authorities did nothing," El Milenio added. The stories exaggerated. Velásquez wasn't in a vegetative state, her family says. She can talk a little and move her head, arms and toes. She wasn't deported, either: McBride said St. Joseph's never had any contact with immigration officials. But at a time when the United States is building border fences and cracking down on illegal immigrants, the story of the comatose woman kicked out by the Americans quickly spread around Mexico. None of the articles mentioned the free medical care. The Ecatepec government looked into flying her home, but no airline would take a patient in such grave condition, said Osmar León, a city councilman who chairs the health committee. A chartered jet was out of the question: It would have cost $40,000, one-tenth of the city's entire health budget, he said. And so Velázquez was loaded into an ambulance for a 26-hour ride across Mexico. She cost Arizona taxpayers $478,000 DOLLARS!!! This is what only ONE illegal has cost Arizona taxpayers!! Is it any WONDER that we do NOT want them here?

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