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Law seeks penalties for illegal attendance at DeSoto schools
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By Wayne Risher
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December 16, 2006
DeSoto County is saving millions by rigidly enforcing rules against outsiders attending schools.

But school officials and state Sen. Merle Flowers believe they could do even better if the rules had more teeth.


Flowers has proposed a new state law letting school districts crack down on parents with fines and civil lawsuits to recover costs of educating illegal students.

With the 2007 Mississippi Legislature set to convene Jan. 2, Flowers, R-Southaven, has prefiled a tougher school residency law and a bill that would deny state-sponsored benefits, such as Medicaid, to illegal aliens.

Flowers is scheduled to outline his agenda during a speech to the Olive Branch Civitan Club at 11:30 a.m. Monday at the B.J. Chain Public Library.

Schools Supt. Milton Kuykendall estimated more than 500 nonresident students were kept from registering at county schools in August because of a policy requiring strict proof of residence. More students were caught coming to county schools from surrounding counties and made to withdraw.

But current law only allows districts to make rule-breaking students withdraw, Flowers and Kuykendall said.

"We have been on top of this," Kuykendall said. "The issue is, we put them out of Olive Branch and the next week they're over in Hernando."

Flowers' bill, which has been prefiled in Jackson, calls for parents to be administratively fined $500 and taken to court to recover costs of educating the students. Per-pupil expenditures stand near $6,000 a year, with a third of that from the county.

If a student from another Mississippi county attended DeSoto schools, the district could sue to recoup the county expenditure, prorated for the amount of time the student had been in the wrong school.

If an out-of-state student were caught, the district could go after the county and state expenditures.

The law would make a second offense a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 and up to six months in jail, plus recovery of expenses in civil court.

Flowers said, "In my opinion this is a major deterrent to parents who send their children where they don't belong."

Kuykendall said, "I think it would be a good law and it would be good for DeSoto County."

The superintendent said enforcement of residency rules has been a priority for his administration.

In addition to costing taxpayers and putting a strain on facilities, he said, "We're teaching children when they're in kindergarten or first grade to lie about where they live. I think we're obligated to have a system in place that encourages parents and children to tell the truth."

Flowers' other major piece of legislation would require applicants for state aid programs, such as Medicaid or housing assistance, to present proof of citizenship or legal residency.

He said the agencies that take applications for aid "can't tell you today if someone is a resident of Texas or Mexico or Guatemala. They don't know.

"I know this needs to be done in Mississippi," Flowers said.

No figures were available, but he believes aid to illegal aliens is costing state taxpayers "tens of millions of dollars" a year.

"Our people work too hard for their money to give it away in public benefits to illegal aliens," Flowers said.

Steven Camarota, director of research for the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, said other states have enacted similar laws.

He said it's a "perfectly reasonable" rule for a state government, but it might not address "the core of the problem: the presence of the illegal resident here."

That's because U.S.-born children of illegal residents are legally entitled to benefits, such as food stamps and welfare, that are denied alien residents, Camarota said.

-- Wayne Risher: (662) 996-1421