Thread: Immigration law cited for enrollment decline

Immigration law cited for enrollment decline
Ray Parker
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 17, 2007 02:31 PM

Mesa Public Schools' alarming drop in enrollment this year comes largely in its elementary schools and almost exclusively in west Mesa, where there is a high Hispanic population, according to October district enrollment figures.

The district will have to wrangle with the fallout that comes with 1,295 fewer students, who could account for a drop of up to $5 million in funding from the state. (Boo hoo hoo)

Other Southeast Valley districts have shown enrollment increases, so the Mesa exodus is largely unexplained.

Mesa school board member Mike Hughes, citing enrollment declines in Tucson, said charter schools aren't drawing away students as some have suggested. Some board members said the drop could be attributed to the district reaching its building capacity and the transformation of older neighborhoods.

Many are pointing to a state law that takes effect Jan. 1 that penalizes employers of undocumented immigrants, whose children attend public schools no-questions-asked.

Board member David Lane said he knows of families moving to New Mexico.

"I've seen some families leave and maybe some won't arrive that normally would have," he said. "I think that (the new law) will have an effect on schools and a lot of other things."

Mesa saw a drop of 1,217 elementary school students this year. At 28 elementary schools, there are student reductions resulting in the elimination of at least one classroom, and in 17 of those schools, at least two classes were eliminated.

There also are 621 fewer junior high students and 19 fewer high school students, according to attendance figures from the district. However, there were 616 additional students in district alternative schools, so the total number lost is 1,295.

Mesa officials are facing some guess work as they near May, when contracts are offered to teachers for the next school year. In recent years, the state Legislature has not approved district budgets by then.

"We send out contracts based on what we think it (funding) will be," Burnham said. "It's a problem with declines."

Mesa schools, steadily declining in recent years, plummeted this year.

Two years ago, there were about 700 fewer students enrolled than the previous year, while last year there was about a drop off 550.

Fewer students mean less money from the state, which pays public schools according to enrollment.

Fewer students
Mesa Public Schools have almost 1,300 fewer students this school year than last, according to October enrollment figures.

Administrators will likely have to figure out how to reduce up to $5 million in operational expenses in next year's budget, which they will begin to analyze in January and approve by July 1.

Here are the schools showing the largest declines, by grade level.

Elementary

Emerson, 415 N. Westwood, down 109

Eisenhower, 848 N. Mesa Drive, down 92

Edison, 545 N. Horne, down 70

Junior high

Powell, 855 W. Eighth Ave., down 142

Kino, 848 N. Horne, down 102

Brimhall, 4949 E. Southern Ave., down 86

High school

Mountain View, 2700 E. Brown Road, down 144

Westwood, 945 W. Eighth Street, down 95

Dobson, 1501 W. Guadalupe Road, down 81
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... t1018.html

AH, you may have to send back some of those teachers you hired from down Mexico way. Maybe they the teachers will run into some of their students when they get back, if we are lucky at all!!

First it is overcrowding of schools, now it is complaining about losing money. They can get the schools down to where they can take care of students and maybe improve the education system and they cry about losing money. There will be money loss in some instances, but it will take time for things to get back to normal. They need to be patient and just figure things over again. We CAN have better education now that illegas might be leaving. We can get schools back to where they use to be. California use to have an excellent education system until we had to start bilingual classes. Wouldn't it be nice to have just English so that we can improve the education of AMERICAN children. If students want to learn another language, they can learn, but not to the dtriment of other students. Without MORE students, they won't need all of that extra money and maybe the taxpayers can have a break on their homeowners taxes. So they can run their schools on less money.

they talk about money like it is they're money to put they're grubby little fingers on... I would like to slap the goofy out of them and remind them it is your's and my tax dollars they want to play with

Agreed, get rid of the Mexican teachers we are paying for

Can someone tell me why school boards are stuck on stupid

Originally Posted by AirborneSapper7

they talk about money like it is they're money to put they're grubby little fingers on... I would like to slap the goofy out of them and remind them it is your's and my tax dollars they want to play with

Agreed, get rid of the Mexican teachers we are paying for

Can someone tell me why school boards are stuck on stupid

Stuck on stupid= greed

adios

I used to volunteer in helping out in my son's class one day a week. I am 56 years old so you can figure out the time frame. But, even back then, the teacher would tell me to concentrate on only hispanic children. After several discussions it was deemed best if I worked with all children that were having trouble. Really made me mad.

American schools paid for by American taxpayers should be attended by American citizens not illegals. Simple as that. The principal at my son's school, the whole district is corrupt and that came from my son's teacher's mouth, keeps telling parents to have more kids. I'm like are you serious? There is already over crowding but they don't care, all they see are dollar signs with each kid. I had a parent-teacher meeting and she just reiterated what I already knew about the amount of illegals attending the school, how the school broke the law one year by having kids being taught in the hallways because it meant more money and they used the no child left behind act to cover their butts because parents knew it was a new school and wanted their kids to go there.

Immigration law cited for enrollment decline

See, enforcement does work!