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Meeting the Needs
Schools challenged to properly educate immigrant students
By Michael Hewlett
JOURNAL REPORTER
Monday, November 21, 2005



Marsha Maxey teaches a class of Spanish-speaking students at Old Town Elementary. (Journal Graphic By Richard Boyd II / Journal Photo By David Rolfe)
Tobie Arnold, the principal at Old Town Elementary School has seen the number of Hispanic students grow to about half the school's student population in the past six years.

And she has heard some people grumble about that. But she said last week that her focus is on the children.

"I think they're here, and they deserve the best education we can give them," she said.

Forsyth County commissioners Debra Conrad-Shrader and Beaufort Bailey referred to the rising Hispanic population during a recent meeting and said they wondered if tougher immigration enforcement might help cut the need for more schools.

School officials had just presented a plan calling for 13 new schools, renovations to 24 others and technology improvements that would cost the county $405 million if put on a bond referendum.

Hispanics constitute 14 percent of the school system's student population, and over the past six years, the number of Hispanic students in the school system has grown 148 percent.

Statewide, Hispanics make up 7.5 percent of the overall student population, according to statistics from the N.C. Department of Public Instruction.

"I think it's appropriate to take (tougher immigration enforcement) into consideration," Conrad-Shrader said. "What if we build all those schools and the Hispanic population disappears?"

But Hispanic students won't disappear, and Forsyth County and the rest of North Carolina is going to have to deal with that reality, immigration experts and Hispanic advocates say.

"I don't think any of us should be short-sighted to believe that this entire population is going to go away," said Melanie Chernoff, the deputy director for El Pueblo, a statewide advocacy group for Hispanics.

North Carolina is one of six Southern states that are experiencing rapid growth in the Hispanic population, according to a recent study by the Pew Hispanic Center.

The Hispanic population grew 394 percent between 1990 and 2000, based on U.S. Census numbers, the study said.

In Forsyth County, the Hispanic population went from 2,102 in the 1990 Census to 19,577 in the 2000 Census, an 831 percent increase.

Francisco Camara-Riess, the editor of the weekly newspaper Que Pasa, said he estimates that about 80 percent of the Hispanics who live in Forsyth County are undocumented, the same statistic that Conrad-Shrader talked about during a recent commissioners briefing.

However, no one knows for sure how many illegal immigrants live in Forsyth County and elsewhere. Hispanic advocates say that the U.S. Census undercounts the Hispanic population. The U.S. Census does not ask people their legal status.

A ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1982 prevents school officials from asking children about their legal status. Public schools must try to educate children regardless of their or their parents' legal status.

Gabriel Servello, a Cuban-American who has three children in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, said he was offended when he heard about the comments made by Conrad-Shrader and Bailey.

He said they unfairly stigmatized Hispanics.

"You can't just blame Hispanics," Servello said.

He said he lives in Kernersville, a place where neighbors have arrived from, among other places, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin. They were attracted to the lower housing prices and family friendly atmosphere just as he was, he said.

"Everything is growing around here," Servello said.

Superintendent Don Martin said that the Hispanic population is one factor out of many that influence the school system, which has a growth rate of about 2 percent a year.

Even without the Hispanic population, the school system would grow about 1 percent a year, he said.

Immigration is a hot-button issue nationally and has stirred some anger. In 1994, California voters passed Proposition 187, a law intended to deny illegal immigrants access to social services, health care and public education.

The law was a reaction to the federal government's inaction in enforcing immigration laws, said John Keeley, the communications director of Center for Immigration Studies, which favors curbs on immigration.

But a federal judge ruled that the law was unconstitutional. Congress is considering several proposals, but even if it passes tougher legislation, the problem won't be quickly solved, Keeley said.

"There is nothing that can be done for localities in the short term because Congress has failed to act on enforcement of immigration laws for decades," he said.

Focusing on enforcement won't work anyway, said Noah Pickus, a professor at Duke University and the author of True Faith and Allegiance: Immigration and American Civic Nationalism.

North Carolina is changing, and leaders in Forsyth County and across the state are going to have to deal with that, he said.

Demonizing immigrants won't solve the problem, and neither will wholesale deportation of all illegal immigrants, Pickus said.

Pickus said that the country benefits from immigration because American businesses, such as construction companies, employ immigrants. Americans now are considering the costs, he said.

Leaders in Forsyth County and across the state have to find ways to help immigrants become better educated and better trained, Pickus said.

"We have a policy where we don't invest much in immigrants and we don't expect much," he said.

Gloria Whisenhunt, the chairwoman of the Forsyth commissioners, said she won't let her concerns about the rising Hispanic population influence how she votes on setting a school-bond referendum.

"Regardless of how I feel about the rise in Hispanic population, it is my sole responsibility to house these children until the state and federal laws are changed," she said.