Thread: Wall Street Journal-ist speaks on immigration

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Wall Street Journal-ist speaks on immigration
By Danielle Ameden/ Daily News Correspondent
Monday, June 26, 2006 - Updated: 03:02 PM EST

FRAMINGHAM -- With reporting stints in El Salvador and Mexico, Joel Millman has never forgotten his heritage or his hometown, weaving the two into his passion for discussing and covering immigration.

The Wall Street Journal reporter, in a lecture yesterday, noted "Framingham has a proud and rich (immigration) history" of accepting newcomers from Irish immigrants during the potato famine in the 1840s to today’s large population of Brazilians.

"It’s great to be home again," said the 50-year-old reporter, who works out of the Journal’s Mexico City bureau.

Framingham has long been "welcoming and tolerant" he said, but added that increasing anti-immigrant sentiment and tougher immigration laws present a challenge to local residents and officials.

"Everybody loves immigrants when they’re few, but when the numbers tip and the schools are filled with these kids and they do better than your kids...there’s a lot of friction," Millman told a crowd of more than 100 who attended his talk at the Framingham Historical Society and Museum at the Village Hall.

He said business owners have embraced immigrants because they boost the economy, but officials at a local and national level should be focusing on illegal immigrant workers rather than legal migrants.

In his discussion, Millman anecdotally recalled how his experiences with people from different backgrounds -- from Framingham to New York City’s Chinatown, to El Salvador and the Mexican border -- have taught him about immigration.

"It’s essential to have a population that’s really in tune (with the issue), he said.

Millman included a chapter on Framingham in his 1997 book, "The Other Americans: How Immigrants Renew Our Country, Our Economy, and Our Values."

Millman has reported on the immigration dynamics of his hometown for the Wall Street Journal. In February, he explored the successful Brazilian maid services in the Framingham area.

Yesterday, he explained why he feels the area is a popular destination for immigrant workers.

He said the Brazilian immigrants find their niche working for "two-income couples" who live in the suburbs and "need domestic help."

Millman said the Brazilians have been able to tap into the local economy so well because of their "strong competitive advantage" over other immigrants. He said they are more educated and more adept to American ways.

"If a woman says, ’you can find my address on MapQuest; be here Tuesday morning,’ a Haitian (immigrant) can’t do that," Millman said."A Salvadoran can’t do that, a Mexican can’t do that, but a Brazilian probably can. You see that a lot."

After the discussion, Millman explained that his Eastern European Jewish heritage has always been important to him.

"We have a strong sense of immigration," said his mother, Joan, of Newton, who attended the discussion. Millman’s maternal grandparents came to the United States from Russia.

"My mother never stopped telling us how lucky we were," Joan said. "I think that passes on (down the generations)."

but officials at a local and national level should be focusing on illegal immigrant workers rather than legal migrants.

That's always been the focus, duh......this guy is in la-la land......

"Everybody loves immigrants when they’re few, but when the numbers tip and the schools are filled with these kids and they do better than your kids...there’s a lot of friction," Millman told a crowd of more than 100 who attended his talk at the Framingham Historical Society and Museum at the Village Hall.

What........do better than our kids.........that's BS. Have you checked the drop out rate for "Anchor Babies" and illegal children recently. Check the Denver and Los Angelers school districts for a start. What an idiot! Of course I shouldn't be surprised considering the article was published in the Wall Street Journal - the #1 corporate America newspaper.

Originally Posted by MW

"Everybody loves immigrants when they’re few, but when the numbers tip and the schools are filled with these kids and they do better than your kids...there’s a lot of friction," Millman told a crowd of more than 100 who attended his talk at the Framingham Historical Society and Museum at the Village Hall.

What........do better than our kids.........that's BS. Have you checked the drop out rate for "Anchor Babies" and illegal children recently. Check the Denver and Los Angelers school districts for a start. What an idiot! Of course I shouldn't be surprised considering the article was published in the Wall Street Journal - the #1 corporate America newspaper.

Even kids supposedly getting A's and B's in school are highly suspect. I read the following article in the LA Times today that makes me wonder if the letter grades they are handing out are warranted when they cannot pass a basic test.


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... 6791.story



Exit Exam Not the End for High School Seniors
High school seniors who failed California's new exit exam are being welcomed into two-year colleges for another shot at a diploma.
By Stuart Silverstein and Seema Mehta
Times Staff Writers

June 25, 2006

Community colleges have long offered a second chance to students with lofty ambitions but lousy high school grades. Now many two-year colleges are trying to attract a new group seeking a fresh start: seniors leaving high school this month without diplomas because they couldn't pass California's new exit exam.

The Los Angeles Community College District, the state's largest, and others around California are welcoming many of the nearly 42,000 high school seniors tripped up by the exit exam.

By one estimate, 15,000 to 20,000 of those students will enroll in basic skills courses or other classes at the colleges.

Some state officials and education analysts question whether those efforts eventually could divert resources from other needed programs at two-year colleges and become a permanent crutch for failing high schools.

Concerns also have been raised that, in a few cases, community colleges are providing students a loophole — letting them earn high school diplomas without passing the California High School Exit Examination. (Among educators, it's known as the CAHSEE, pronounced "KAY-see.")

For the most part, however, educators — along with many students and their parents — are embracing the initiatives aimed at the 9.6% of this past year's high school seniors who have fallen short on the exit exam.

The supporters point out that one of the longtime missions for the colleges has been to serve students lacking high school diplomas and needing basic skills instruction.

"These students have always been coming to us," said Marshall "Mark" Drummond, the state community colleges chancellor, noting that admitting students without high school diplomas is nothing new for California's community colleges.

"We have to be sure that kids know that failing the CAHSEE is not the end of their future," he said.

Students such as Morgan Saunders, 18, who maintained an A-minus average during her four years at Oakland's Dewey High School, are taking that message to heart. She hopes to earn a university degree and launch a web design business.

But Saunders finished high school without a diploma. She passed the English section of the exit exam on her first try but failed the math portion four times, stumped by the geometry.

"I was very angry," she said. Noting her high GPA, Saunders said, "For a test to say I didn't make it, that's wrong."

Still, she said she was relieved to find out that she could enroll at Laney College, a two-year school in Oakland.

Saunders will participate in a partnership between Oakland public schools and community colleges. Students who enroll in an afternoon exit exam prep class can also take a morning course for college credit, free of charge. The students can continue in community college even if they don't pass their next exit exam.

"We thought it might be practically and psychologically a really good way to help motivate kids who might be feeling kind of depressed or frustrated because they hadn't graduated, and might just be inclined … to drop out or hang their heads," said Brian McKibben, an Oakland school district administrator.

Idalia Albarran, an 18-year-old from Santa Ana, also is looking to her local community college for help.

Albarran, who immigrated to Orange County from the Mexican state of Guerrero in 2002, passed all of her courses over the last four years at Century High School and maintained a B average.

But when her school held its commencement this month, she received a certificate of completion but no diploma because she failed the English portion of the exit exam five times.

Albarran, who relies mainly on Spanish in conversation, said in Spanish that she was "really sad" about falling short on the exam. "I had done so much work and it didn't pay off," she said.

Yet Albarran, who hopes one day to become a dentist, said she was thrilled to learn that she could enter a program at Santa Ana College tailored to students who failed the exit exam.

Without a second chance, she said, "I would have to work … and I wouldn't have a career."

The Schwarzenegger administration has proposed, and legislators have supported, including $10 million in the new state budget for community college programs that serve students who fail the exit exam.

Separately, state Sen. Deborah Ortiz (D-Sacramento) has introduced legislation that would permit students who have not passed the exit exam to receive Cal Grant funds for college-related expenses.

Among the beneficiaries of the proposed spending would be students in Los Angeles' community college district.

All nine of the system's campuses will offer "Bridge to College," a new summer program beginning in July, for an estimated 1,200 students overall, including an estimated 150 to 250 who failed the exit exam. (A flier for the program declares, "No CAHSEE? … No Problem!" )

In addition, three of the district's schools — the City College, Trade Tech and Southwest campuses — will have a related "Learn and Earn" program providing part-time campus jobs for students who failed the exam and want to continue their studies.

The Schwarzenegger administration, though generally supporting community colleges' efforts for students who failed the exit exam, objects to one practice.

A few community colleges around the state have already offered adult high school programs and awarded diplomas to students who complete them. The Schwarzenegger administration is now pushing, so far unsuccessfully, to prevent those colleges from awarding diplomas to students who failed the exit exam.

H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the Schwarzenegger administration, called that practice "a loophole that lets you get past or get through the requirements that the majority of other high school students in California have to meet." The standards enforced by the exit exam, he said, are intended to help students and "prepare them for their next step in life."

Yet officials at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, one of the two-year schools offering high school diplomas without requiring the exit exam, reject the loophole characterization.

Madelyn Arballo, the school's director of basic skills, said its high school program imposes reading, writing and math requirements that match or exceed the exit exam standards. "We know that it's just as rigorous and just as tough as getting a diploma" at a regular high school, she said.

*


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Times staff writer Jennifer Delson contributed to this report.

It goes to show you how these guys in the media distort things. It makes you suspect of most everything you read in newspapers. They tell you what they want you to know and then they twist is to fit their views.
I have a subscription to the local newspaper but their editorials have been the usual and I'm at the point where I'm going to let the subscription expire and get what news I want from the TV and the net.

Does it surprise anyone to know that California is our first state to officially be annexed by Mexico. Next will be Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.

Hmmm, and we thought the Terminator was on our side - what a mistake!

Hmmm, and we thought the Terminator was on our side - what a mistake!

Maybe they should name his next movie: "BLUNDER BOY". :P

"If a woman says, ’you can find my address on MapQuest; be here Tuesday morning,’ a Haitian (immigrant) can’t do that," Millman said."A Salvadoran can’t do that, a Mexican can’t do that, but a Brazilian probably can. You see that a lot."

How does he know a Haitian, Salvadoran, or Mexican can't do that. Sounds to me as if he has a bit of a racist problem himself.

because she failed the English portion of the exit exam five times.

Assimilate...yeah, right....after 4 years and still can't pass a English test after 5 tries.

It's a sad day when people can go to college to finish High School.....talk about dumbing down.