Thread: School Bonds: The Immigration Link

Clouding the Issue: Observers debate the likelihood that growth in
enrollment of Hispanic children could hurt fall referendum
By Danielle Deaver
JOURNAL REPORTER
Sunday, May 7, 2006



Click here to enlarge this graphic
The continued emergence of illegal immigration as a political issue has
Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school officials concerned about a possible
spillover effect on a school-bond proposal that they would like to see on
the November ballot.

In recent weeks, U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx held a congressional subcommittee
hearing in Winston-Salem that focused on illegal immigrants and issues such
as gangs and drugs. On Monday, thousands of Hispanics stayed away from work
and school and rallied in Greensboro, part of a nationwide movement to show
support for illegal immigrants and the importance of Hispanics to the
nation's economy. With such a backdrop, the idea of requesting a school-bond
referendum for as much as $300 million has some educators worried.

"I think there actually could be an impact, and I think that's something
we'll have to be prepared to respond to and indicate what our position is
and what we do believe that we have to do," school-board Chairman Donny
Lambeth said Friday.

School officials say that the system's growth - more than 1,000 students a
year for the past five years - will require new schools and renovations to
existing buildings. Hispanic students have become a larger percentage of the
total student population, rising from 8.4 percent in 2001-02 to 13.6 percent
in the current school year.

Some of those Hispanic students are the children of illegal immigrants, but
the school system is obligated to educate all, regardless of their status.

"We'll admit that of our new students in the past few years, the majority
are Hispanic," Superintendent Don Martin said.

"Clearly our enrollment growth is necessitating new buildings, and clearly a
large part of our enrollment growth is Hispanic."

That fact alone bothers some members of the Forsyth County Board of
Commissioners, who have to agree to allow the school system to hold a bond
referendum in the fall.

Debra Conrad-Shrader, the vice chairwoman of the county commissioners, has
said that illegal immigration is causing many of the school-growth problems.

Last week, Conrad-Shrader, who is up for re-election in November and who has
named illegal immigration as her top campaign issue, said that she believes
that it might be best to delay a school-bond referendum.

"My first inclination is 2008 is a better year because we would have paid
off some debt," Conrad-Shrader said. "It would give the state and federal
government time to deal with the illegal immigration issue."

Martin disagreed with the idea of putting off the bond vote.

There are already more than 300 mobile units scattered across school
campuses in Forsyth County. Even if the system were able to spend the $422
million that it says it needs to build 13 new schools and renovate 24
others, it would still require 200 mobile units for future flexibility,
school officials say.

"I do not think we can wait,'' Martin said. "We kind of waited from 2005. We
had an inkling to do it last year. Waiting until 2008, we would get way too
far behind the eight ball."

A tough sell

A 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision requires the school system to educate all
children who live in Forsyth County. School officials are not allowed to ask
whether children are here legally; they can only require proof that they
live in the county.

A year ago, the school board put off asking for a bond referendum partly
because of concerns that the introduction of the state lottery would confuse
too many voters. In retrospect, Martin said, the lottery would have been
easier to deal with than the Hispanic issue.

"We'll probably put out a fact sheet with some information that at least
tries to clarify the facts," Martin said. "Obviously we are not in favor of
anyone who's here illegally, but it's also true that the federal government
says it's not the 5-year-old's fault if he's here illegally."

Experts said that the continuing immigration debate could certainly affect a
bond referendum.

Bryan Shelly, an assistant professor of political science at Wake Forest,
said that bond referendums are a tough sell to the public at any time.

"I think a lot of times bond issues can have some trouble simply because
it's the one tax issue that people really feel they have control over," he
said.

The immigration debate could make this one even more difficult, he said, if
people feel that the bond money will be used for social welfare for poor
people or racial and ethnic minorities. Studies have shown that people are
more reluctant to agree to be taxed for those things, he said.

Similarly, people might be hesitant to approve the bonds both because they
feel that government wastes money and because they resent the intrusion of
illegal immigrants into the school systems, said Ron Woodard, the director
of N.C. Listen, a nonprofit group that supports efforts to reform
immigration.

"I don't believe that bond issues are going to get voted down because of
illegal immigrants,'' he said. "My hunch is that's part of the equation of
the school-bond issue. The other part of the issue is people saying the
school needs to live on a budget."

But immigrant students are a large part of a school system's overall budget
problems, he said.

"Not only is the school system paying for their extra cost because they
can't speak English, but literally all of their cost is also part of growth
because the system is growing,'' he said. "The illegals who are here are
part of that growth."

Others, however, said they believe that people will be able to separate the
immigration issues from the school bonds.

"There are some real needs within the school system and I don't think,
systemwide, immigrants are putting as much strain on the system as people
trying to use this as a wedge issue are trying to make it out to be," said
Peter Siavelis, an associate professor of political science at Wake Forest
University.

Confusion abounds

There is a lot of confusion about how many people are coming into the county
from other places, and politicians are using that confusion to their
advantage, said Nolo Martinez, the director of research and outreach at the
University of North Carolina at Greensboro's Center for New North
Carolinians.

This has been a problem in Wake County, where school officials are hoping to
ask voters for about $1 billion in school bonds this fall, Martinez said.
School officials are concerned that the voters' beliefs about the prevalence
of illegal immigrants in the school system will hurt their chances of
getting a bond passed.

Sometimes, the basic numbers about the ethnicity of new students get dragged
into the fight and misrepresented. A Wake County commissioner said that
Hispanics accounted for 55 percent of new students in Wake County schools
this year. The school system published a report that showed that Hispanics
in fact accounted for 12 percent of new students this year; 50 percent were
white.

"A lot of these politicians and a lot of public-opinion gurus use their
imagination based on science that is not science, just to satisfy their
agenda,'' Martinez said. "If you give the facts, then the facts will tell
you our school system, our education system does not need that type of
extremist agenda."

Even when they have the correct information about the ethnicity of new
students, people look at the number of Hispanic children in a school system
and assume that all of them are illegal, Martinez said.

Many people miss the point of why the government wants every child in
school, no matter what their legal status, he said.

"Education is a right, and the cost of not educating our youth or our
children is much higher than educating them,'' he said.

• Danielle Deaver can be reached at 727-7279 or at ddeaver@wsjournal.com

Even when they have the correct information about the ethnicity of new
students, people look at the number of Hispanic children in a school system
and assume that all of them are illegal, Martinez said.

Many people miss the point of why the government wants every child in
school, no matter what their legal status, he said.

"Education is a right, and the cost of not educating our youth or our
children is much higher than educating them,'' he said.

So why are the latinos dropping out of high school like flies? They don't graduate because their parents didn't graduate. I've been teaching for 11 years. I teach the latino kids. Almost all of them either stopped at 3rd grade or 6th grade. Their grammar when they write is horrible and their spelling is horrible (in Spanish). Some don't even know how to read or write. I know of only one parent of a student I had who went to college. Education is NOT a priority for them. Interestingly enough, they want their children to do well, but they have no desire to study more or learn English. They are embarrassed a lot of times to speak English to anyone. They even tell me that in Mexico, the schools aren't teaching their kids anything. Those are their exact words. When they see what we do here, they are in shock. But it's hard for their kids to get ahead and pass their parents' social economic class. They tend to stay on the same level as their parents.

Oh, as far as assuming they are all illegal--I don't. I just ask them. They are kindergarteners, they'll tell you the whole truth. I had many kids absent on May 1st and I asked each one of them why they were absent. Then I asked how many had parents that were illegal and half raised their hands. I know they are not lying to me. I was very sad after I asked that. We had an interesting discussion. The really sad thing was hearing about the ones the didn't understand why they couldn't go to school that day. They wanted to go but weren't allowed. I think it's terrible to involve 5 year olds in an issue like this.