M.A. schools try to repel illegals! Student resident rule may tighten!
Posted on Monday, July 23 @ 14:14:01 EDT
Topic: State Laws Immigration illegal legal
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 ALIPAC NOTE: This paper forgot the word ILLEGAL like so many others. Legal immigrants have nothing to worry about and it is an insult to law abiding LEGAL immigrants to be lumped in with law breaking ILLEGAL ALIENS as this biased paper has done.
Student resident rule may tighten
(Illegal) Immigrants fear being targeted
By Lisa Kocian, Globe Staff | July 22, 2007
Members of Marlborough's immigrant community are outraged by a measure
the city's School Committee appears poised to pass. The proposal would
require parents to produce three forms of proof that they live in the
city before their children would be allowed to attend schools here. It
has been blasted by immigrants and their advocates, who charge that it
targets those in the country illegally.
School officials emphatically deny that the measure targets illegal
immigrants, saying it is meant instead to root out children who live in
other towns but are taking advantage of Marlborough-funded programs in
sports or arts. Some supporters have also cited the city's special
education programs as a draw -- the costs associated with educating a
special needs child who lives elsewhere could add up to a heavy
financial burden.
The new policy -- which is likely to be adopted either at the
Tuesday School Committee meeting or the next session, in August --
would increase to three the number of documents parents of prospective
schoolchildren would have to show. The parents would be required to
produce a document from each of three categories. For the first, they
would have to show a utility bill; for the second, a deed or lease
agreement (with some exceptions). The third category is the
controversial one. Parents would be able to choose from a list of 10
documents, ranging from a valid driver's license to a W-2 form to a
bank statement -- all likely to be problematic for illegal immigrants
.
Topics: illegal immigration, schools, education, teachers, taxpayer fraud, Spanish, English, American students, benefits for illegals, MA, Marlborough
Nilton Lisboa, a Marlborough resident and Brazilian immigrant, said the
new policy would push immigrant children to towns that don't have such
strict requirements. "What's going to end up happening, even though the
parents live here, they're going to have to go to Framingham or
Northborough or Hudson," said Lisboa, 28, who has been in Marlborough
since 1990 and graduated from high school in the city.
He said he feels the policy targets immigrants, despite what school
officials say, and he doesn't buy that there are so many students from
out of town in the system that it's having a negative impact on the
school budget. "One thing I'm still unclear on is, why are they doing
this?" said Lisboa. "Is it [so] excessive that it's affecting the
school funding? I don't think that's the case."
Some school officials agree that the number of nonresident students
is probably not great -- Superintendent Barbara McGann said it might be
as high as 5 percent -- but they say with fiscal times so tough,
watching every taxpayer dollar is crucial.
"It's not like there are vast numbers of kids that are hijacking
our school system," said Michelle Bodin-Hettinger, a School Committee
member. "I think the purpose of the exercise is to streamline the
process."
She added the policy has "absolutely nothing" to do with targeting
illegal immigrants, but she understands the fear they may have and
wants to allay concerns. "I feel confident we're going to be reasonable
and flexible," she said.
Mayor Nancy Stevens, chairwoman of the School Committee, could not be reached for comment.
Although the policy is still in draft form, the superintendent has
released the work in progress. A section on "frequently asked
questions" states, "No family will be denied access to school because
of their immigration status." Indeed, School Committee members say they
are forbidden by law from asking a family about their immigration
status.
For the most part, the policy would affect new registrations. Once
a child is registered, the parents do not have to reregister them from
year to year unless the child has a week of unexcused absences -- a
not-so-uncommon occurrence. There are between 500 and 1,000 such
instances every year, requiring reregistration, said Bodin-Hettinger.
The new policy would allow the schools to better track those children
and to find out if they need specialized services, she said.
If the School Committee approves the policy Tuesday, it would go
into effect for the new school year and apply to any new families that
moved to the city over the summer. If the policy is not approved until
August, it would only be applied to students who register after the
start of school.
McGann said she initiated the proposal a few weeks ago as a way to
protect taxpayers. She worked as an assistant superintendent in Boston,
which has a similarly strict policy, before coming to Marlborough last
fall.
She said last week that she doesn't want to burden families, but
simply wants to make it difficult for students who don't live in the
district to attend school here. "I'm trying to keep this as
family-friendly as possible," she said.
A new position, the central registrar, which has not yet been
filled, would be created to check the documentation that parents
submit. There would be an appeals process if a child is rejected. The
new process would also be centralized. Rather than being processed
through individual schools, all registrations would go through the new
central registrar, located at the District Education Center, which
includes the superintendent's office.
The policy also gives notice that families can be investigated if
they provide incomplete or suspicious documentation or if mail from the
schools is returned.
Last week, a subcommittee debated the finer details of the policy before voting to pass it along to the full School Committee.
There was some discussion about how quickly a student would be
dismissed if he or she is found not to be a resident. Subcommittee
members Bodin-Hettinger and Mark Hediger both said they wanted the
student to stay in class while an appeal is pending, and they both
supported some kind of grace period of a few days if a child is
ultimately to be dismissed.
But a third member of the subcommittee, Cosmo Valente, said that
kind of leeway would take the teeth out of the policy. "We're being
overly sensitive," he said. "I'm not sure we should be all that
forgiving."
To consider one measure of school performance, Marlborough High
School ranked 127th out of 337 schools in 10th grade English MCAS
scores, and 73d of 337 schools in 10th grade MCAS math. All bordering
towns outranked Marlborough in English; the city's high school was
about average compared with the same communities on math.
The School Committee meets Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the District Education Center, 17 Washington St.
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