MD:State school board asked to disregard request on IAs

[cvangel]

State school board asked to disregard request on illegal immigrants
Frederick commissioner wants to bill federal government for cost of educating illegal immigrants
by Margarita Raycheva | Staff Writer

The battle over illegal immigration continues in Frederick County this week with the latest salvo involving school children who are in the country illegally.

At issue is whether or not the Frederick Board of County Commissioners can ask the Frederick Board of Education to count the number of students who cannot document their immigration status.

The county school board has refused, so commissioners have asked the Maryland State Board of Education if school systems can collect that kind of information.

The school system — which hired the law firm of Knight, Manzi, Nussbaum and LaPlaca in Prince George's County to represent it on this matter — last week asked the state board to either disregard the commissioners' request or state that school systems cannot legally ask students to provide documents for information proving their immigration status.

"These matters are clearly outside the jurisdiction of the state board," wrote Andrew W. Nussbaum in a response to the state board dated Nov. 24.

He asked the state board to dismiss the request because it would require the Maryland State Board of Education to interpret issues governed by federal and immigration law.

"It would be a ‘regulation of immigration' that would force school officials to act as immigration agents," Nussbaum wrote. "… It would restrict education funding to those students who could ‘support' the ‘proposition' that they are ‘legal;' and it would directly conflict with the Federal immigration law and procedures."

Last spring, Commissioner John "Lennie" Thompson Jr. (R) unsuccessfully proposed that the county withhold money from the school system unless it reported the exact number of students who are in the country illegally.

Thompson wanted to know the number to determine how much the school system spends educating illegal immigrants. His hope was that the federal government could reimburse the county for that amount.

Frederick County Public Schools spent $10,157 per child in 2006-07, the most recent year for which figures are available.

School system officials, however, said they cannot legally ask students to prove their immigration status. They pointed to the 1982 Plyler vs. Doe case in Texas, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that municipalities must pay to educate all their residents regardless of their immigration status.

"Bottom line for us, as educators is: Every child deserves an opportunity to fulfill their potential, and in our country public education offers that opportunity, no matter what the parents' citizenship status might be," Marita Loose, spokeswoman for the school system, said in an e-mail to The Gazette. "Children should not be penalized for possible misconduct of their parents."

This fall, however, commissioners unanimously voted to ask the Maryland State Board of Education to determine if a school system can require students to provide information and documents proving they are not illegal. County commissioners said they just wanted information on the issue.

At the time, some of them acknowledged the fact that their questions may be outside the jurisdiction of the Maryland Board of Education. But Thompson, who proposed the action, said if state officials cannot answer his questions, he would ask federal officials.

Nussbaum's letter is in response to commissioners' request.

Neither Nussbaum nor Thompson were immediately available for comment.

"The Supreme Court has ruled that the matter is federal, not state," Loose wrote in her e-mail to The Gazette. "Essentially immigrant students have the same right to a free public education as US citizens and permanent residents. Our board is not at all inclined to hinder any child's right of access to an education, and definitely is not inclined to inquire about documented status."
http://www.gazette.net/stories/12012008 ... 2480.shtml

[Gogo]

This misnomer that education is free is absolutely ridiculous. It's time that county supervisors and state supervisors start putting out the cost per student in their areas so the TAXPAYER knows how much they are spending. If it was truly free the teachers would be volunteers not paid employees. Let's start turning the language around to the truth and get out of the spin on education.

[Captainron]

Isn't it extremely inconsistent to both tolerate and condone illegal immigration and bill the US taxpayers for the consequences in the same breath?

Think of the implications: the liberal party in your state seizes control of government through decitful tactics, puts out the welcome mat for illegal aliens in the name of "justice," resists the federal policy on immigration by enacting Sanctuary policies, raises taxes on their own citizens to cover the added burden and then bills the federal government to rescue them from their folly. Thanks "Blue States" (like Maryland) for showing us the way!

[SOSADFORUS]

Frederick County Public Schools spent $10,157 per child in 2006-07, the most recent year for which figures are available.

This does not look like free education to me either!!

Gogo is right we need to start turning their "Free Education" language around on them.

This is where "Free Health Care" is headed.

[Jean]

Duplicate post. Please refer any further comments to:
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-139489-fre ... tml+county