Thread: Border schools get tough on Mexican stucents

Border schools get tough on Mexican students
1 commentMay. 22, 2008 03:26 PM
Christian Science Monitor
CALEXICO and SAN DIEGO - If you cross the U.S.-Mexican border at the town of Calexico you might run into a photographer named Daniel Santillan. But he's not likely to be shooting pictures of tourists. He only has eyes for Mexican schoolchildren who want an American education.

Santillan is a residency enforcer, assigned by local education officials to make sure students live in the U.S., not Mexico. When he's not tracking students on weekday mornings at the border crossing, he visits local homes to make sure children live where their parents say they do.

Santillan isn't thrilled about busting youngsters for living south of the border, but he accepts his job. "The bottom line is that these kids are taking up room," he says.
It's impossible to know how many Mexican students cross the border daily to attend school in the U.S., sent by parents who think they'll get a better education. Still, border communities have fretted over their presence for more than a decade.

Some schools are now doing more to enforce residency requirements under pressure from politicians and activists concerned about wasted taxpayer money.

Calexico's schools, however, have gone further than others by sending Santillan to photograph students at the border and requiring parents to provide proof of residency twice a year.

The school district, which serves 9,000 students in a poor southwestern California border town, wasn't overly concerned about Mexican students until about three years ago.

After all, Calexico schools didn't lose any money by accepting the students, since the state of California reimburses the district for each student it accepts. Also, Mexican students didn't necessarily stand out, since 95 percent of Calexico residents are Latino. And close relationships with Calexico's sister city in Mexico - the sprawling metropolis Mexicali - made cross-border trips easy.

District officials say they only began to take action because of complaints about overcrowding - some students had to be bused across town to schools that had room for them - and low test scores under the federal No Child Left Behind program.

Mexican students tend to produce lower test scores because their English skills are poor, says Gilbert Barraza, principal of Calexico High School.

"The elephant in the room is the (test-score) liability these kids bring to the table," he says.

Partly as a result of its crackdown, the Calexico district has lost 300 students and nearly $2 million in state funding that is based on the number of students in its schools. But Barraza says this has helped the overcrowded campuses.

"Enrollment was getting out of control and we had to address it," Barraza says.

Elsewhere along the border, schools pay varying levels of attention to Mexican students. In San Diego County, officials have had to tread carefully since the mid-1990s, when a video clip showing schoolchildren crossing the border in a rural area created a stir. The small school district serving the region ultimately had to expel a reported 325 of its students because they didn't live within its boundaries.

Under federal law, schools cannot ask students about their citizenship status. Even if they could ask, many Mexican children have American citizenship because they were born here. But schools can verify where students live.

The Sweetwater Union High School District, which serves 42,000 students in several San Diego-area border cities, requires parents to show proof of residency each year in person.

The proof can come in the form of documents such as water bills or mortgage papers. In addition, the district now requires documentation if a relative who lives in the district claims to be a child's guardian and a new computer system will allow school officials to immediately identify addresses that don't exist.

"We've really tried to close a lot of the loopholes," says spokeswoman Lillian Leopold. "We think we're pretty strict, but we're not a police agency."

The district does allow Mexican students to attend its schools if they pay annual tuition of $7,435, Leopold says. No one does that at the moment, however.

Students living across the border can attend some US colleges and universities if they pay tuition. An estimated 10 percent of the students at the University of Texas-El Paso are Mexican citizens, says linguistics professor Jon Amastae, former director of the university's department of inter-American and border studies. According to news reports, some of these students cross the border to attend school.

Meanwhile, so many schoolchildren come through the El Paso border that officials created a special pedestrian lane for them. The Houston Chronicle reported that about 1,200 used the lane during a single morning in 2007.

Some El Paso residents have complained about the influx of Mexican students. But Amastae thinks most residents are on his side.

"Here along the border, most people share the idea that we all have an interest in raising education levels," in both countries, he says. "Doing so benefits all of us."







http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... 22-ON.html

This story was run last year an oldie but a goodie

http://www.alipac.us/ftopic-96192-0.html

and here http://www.alipac.us/ftopic-96265-0.html

After all, Calexico schools didn't lose any money by accepting the students, since the state of California reimburses the district for each student it accepts.

And that does not make it OK. Mexico should be paying their their citizen's education.

Dixie

I remember reading this last year....I was hopeing that this would have been corrected by now....

Partly as a result of its crackdown, the Calexico district has lost 300 students and nearly $2 million in state funding that is based on the number of students in its schools. But Barraza says this has helped the overcrowded campuses.


Sounds like part of the old story with a update .

Free meals in our schools are nice too.

As usual the priority is the money. Each warm body in a seat is money for the school.

jean-- I am a little confused on the revenue/expense picture in this scenario. My life experience shows that there are seldom, if ever, any surpluses in school districts at the end of a school year. Also for additional students there are additional expenses.
"the Calexico district has lost 300 students and nearly $2 million in state funding that is based on the number of students in its schools.".

The reduction in attendant expenses incurred by additional students may be more than offset by lowering the annual costs. Are they using trailers to house the additional student headcount? How many new teachers did they have to hire to cover the additional students? Were they going to have to build additional schools?? If som were they going to have t obuy new land for the schools??
How does the $2million divided by the number of students (300)? What impact on the rsident students has the influx of foreign students had?? Are the Mexican students conversant in English?? Did the school district already have enough Spanish speaking teachers to assist the across the border children?? Is it fair for any country to send their children to school in another country and let others pay for the education???
Those are just a few questions, not to even go into the legality of the issue.

Originally Posted by FedUpinFarmersBranch

Partly as a result of its crackdown, the Calexico district has lost 300 students and nearly $2 million in state funding that is based on the number of students in its schools. But Barraza says this has helped the overcrowded campuses.


Sounds like part of the old story with a update .

That $2 million that taxpayers don't have to pay and less overcrowding, so it's all good.

The ironic thing is, I hear these ungrateful illegal students brag about how wonderful Mexican schools are.....so much better that these here in Texas. So why don't they just leave their kids in Mexican schools if they are so great?

This happens every school day along the Texas border....I have personally seen in Brownsville and Laredo.