Mesa schools see little impact from immigration bill

by Cathryn Creno -
Oct. 12, 2011 09:21 AM
The Arizona Republic

Passage of a tough new immigration law in the spring of 2010 does not appear to have had a lasting impact on attendance at Mesa Public Schools.

At the time, community residents voiced concern that Senate Bill 1070, which makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally, would decimate attendance at some predominantly Hispanic Mesa schools.

"It's not something that you hear about much anymore. I think the anxiety, furor and heated discussion has lessened dramatically," said Deanna Villanueva-Saucedo, who coordinates the district's community relations with Spanish speakers.

"The district has never made the claim that 1070 hurt our enrollment. It is not something we can track because we had the economic crunch at the same time 1070 was passed. Families were moving around for all kinds of reasons."

Immigration law was one of the main topics at a Legislative District 18 debate last week, but neither Senate President Russell Pearce nor his opponent, Jerry Lewis, would directly answer a question about whether Arizona should educate illegal immigrants in public schools.

Unlike a new law that recently took effect in Alabama, Arizona's law does not address whether public schools may check a student's immigration status.

In Mesa, under the district's interpretation of federal law, families are not asked whether kids are U.S. citizens when they are enrolled, said Arlinda Mann, the district's west area superintendent.

"Our job is to educate everyone who comes to us," she said.

Districtwide enrollment this school year, meanwhile, has increased slightly, said Joe O'Reilly, the Mesa's executive director for student-achievement support, research and evaluation.

Predominantly Hispanic "central Mesa is an area that is showing an increase," O'Reilly said.

On Oct. 3, Mesa's enrollment was 64,198, up from 63,925 at the start of the school year and from a projected enrollment of about 62,000 this year.

O'Reilly recently crunched district dropout numbers to see if the state's new immigration law appears to have caused more Hispanic high school students to leave without graduating.

His conclusion? No.

In the 2007-2008 school year, 57 percent of the district's 1,275 dropouts were Hispanic, 42 percent spoke Spanish at home and 22 percent were born in Mexico.

In 2010-2011, 55 percent of the district's 903 dropouts were Hispanic, 39 percent spoke Spanish at home and 15 percent were born in Mexico.

O'Reilly said he and other officials are not certain why Mesa's enrollment decline - the district has lost 9,000 students in the last decade - leveled off this year.

"Families who left after 1070 may be returning, people may be coming back after having homes foreclosed on in places like Queen Creek - it could be any number of things," O'Reilly said.

"I like to think it is because we provide a good education," he said. "Mesa has a reputation for being a good school system."

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