Thread: KS:Is illegal immigration a cause of crowding?

Posted on Sun, Mar. 16, 2008

Is illegal immigration a cause of crowding?
BY SUZANNE PEREZ TOBIAS
The Wichita Eagle


The Wichita school district is proposing to raise $350 million for school improvements with a new bond issue. The bonds would be paid off by an estimated 3.5 mill increase in property taxes for the next 20 years. Use this calculator to figure out how your tax bill would change.

Wichita school district residents will vote May 6 on a $350 million bond issue to build new schools, renovate existing schools and upgrade athletic and fine-arts facilities.

Here is a question readers have asked about the bond issue. Keep them coming; we'll print answers to your questions on Sundays.

How much of the district's overcrowding problem is the result of illegal immigration? What percentage of Wichita students are the children of undocumented residents?

District officials don't know how many students may be in the United States illegally, said Dalia Hale, Wichita's director of multilingual education services.

"The students come to us, and we enroll them," Hale said. "We do not ask (for proof of citizenship), because we can't."

In a 1982 court case, Plyler v. Doe, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that excluded children without proof of legal residency from attending public school. The court majority found that the Texas law was "directed against children, and impose(d) its discriminatory burden on the basis of a legal characteristic over which children can have little control" -- namely, the fact that they were brought into the country illegally by their parents.

That decision set a precedent for public schools nationwide, Hale said. Wichita schools don't require Social Security numbers from students at enrollment, and cannot deny admission to a student on the basis of immigration status.

Won't the district's plan to stop busing for integration reduce its transportation costs? And if so, couldn't that money be reallocated to build or fix schools?

No, and no. According to district officials, only about 11 percent of Wichita students who ride buses are bused for integration. The rest -- about 17,800 students -- ride buses because they attend magnet schools, because they live too far from school, because it would be hazardous for them to walk to school, or because they attend special programs.

District officials don't expect to save money by ending busing for integration. In fact, the district estimates it could spend up to $1 million more on transportation next year, because affected students may attend magnet schools or continue to be bused to the schools they attend now.

In addition, the bond issue includes $12 million for improvements to three schools in the assigned attendance area -- Isely Traditional Magnet Elementary, Mueller Elementary and Spaght Accelerated Magnet Academy. Officials say those schools must be expanded if students in the area return to neighborhood schools.

Reach Suzanne Perez Tobias at 316-268-6567 or stobias@wichitaeagle.com.

http://www.kansas.com/news/local/story/343127.html

"The students come to us, and we enroll them," Hale said. "We do not ask (for proof of citizenship), because we can't."

But they ask for a birth certificate that should give them an idea.