Thread: Education Week: How Immigration transforms schools

Education Week



Published: January 8, 2009
Immigration Transforms Communities
By Lesli A. Maxwell



Jim D. Rollins had been superintendent of the Springdale public schools in northwest Arkansas for almost a decade when the mostly white community began its dramatic transformation into a booming gateway for immigrant families and their non-English-speaking children.

In 1990, the district, with just under 8,000 students, had virtually no English-language learners, or ELLs. By last fall, its English-learner population alone stood at 7,000 children—roughly 40 percent of the total enrollment of 17,400 students. A thriving economy in and around Springdale over the past 15 years, driven mostly by job growth at Tyson Foods, the world’s largest poultry producer, and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, had attracted thousands of immigrants from Mexico, as well as a significant number of families from the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific.


“We had to be learners ourselves, and we had to start from scratch,â€

I pulled my children out of public schools in North Carolina. The teachers were struggling with the huge influx of Spanish speaking kids without much time to spend on those American citizen children who weren't anchor babies.

Why is it so hard for these people to say "illegal immigrants?"

Problem is most of these kids aren't technically "illegal". They are anchor kids born here to their illegal alien parents. Something has got to be done about this anchor baby citizenship!

If all this catering is done under the guise of understanding "culture"....our students are willingly giving up and taught to support giving up rights and freedoms based on guilt or feeling sorry. Before long, we'll be valuing child labor, supporting abuses and advocating discrimination.

While I was teaching my children responsible sex, value of marraige etc....they have come right behind me to say something is wrong with them because they aren't having babies and by doing so they could get free education.

Loved that one saying.......you can be so open minded your brains fall out. I think it was from the movie "good will hunting"......there's being flexible and then so much so you stand for nothing.