Thread: AZ-Panel OKs bill to track illegal immigrant students

Panel OKs bill to track illegal immigrant students
By Jim Small - jim.small@azcapitoltimes.com



Published: February 23, 2010 at 7:36 pm

A House panel has approved a bill that would require schools to annually report how many illegal immigrants are enrolled and how much it costs to educate them.

Under the bill, H2382, the Arizona Department of Education would be required to collect data on public school students who cannot prove their lawful presence in the United States. That data would be compiled into a report that would be submitted every year to the governor, the Legislature and the state treasurer.

Included in the report would be the number of illegal immigrant students, the number of teachers required to educate them, the cost of those teachers’ salaries and a “good-faith estimateâ€

Senate advances bill telling schools to tally number of kids here illegally
Howard Fischer
Posted: Thursday, February 25, 2010 12:00 am

PHOENIX - State lawmakers voted Wednesday to force public schools to count how many students are in this country illegally, the first step toward challenging the federal law requiring schools to educate all, legal and otherwise.

Officially, Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, said SB 1097, approved on a 5-2 margin by the Senate Committee on Education Accountability and Reform, is simply a fact-finding mission. He said there are lots of guesses but no actual data on how many of the approximately 1 million students in Arizona schools are neither U.S. citizens nor legal residents.

His legislation would require the Department of Education to compute the cost to the state.

"Don't you think the taxpayer has a right to know who they're paying for?" Pearce asked.

He acknowledged, though, the ultimate goal is more than just numbers.

A 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling requires public schools to educate all children who live within the district, without charge, regardless of whether they are in this country legally or not. Pearce said one of the reasons the high court decided against the state of Texas in that case was the lack of evidence of the cost to the public.

This study, said Pearce, will provide the data - and a basis for Arizona to ask the high court to reconsider its decision, potentially letting states exclude illegal immigrants from schools.

Dan Pochoda, legal director of the Arizona chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said he believes Pearce's legislation itself is illegal. He said the 1982 ruling does not stop schools from asking students to produce documentation. But he said just asking has the same practical effect as a ban.

"The impact of it will be to deter people from sending their kids to school who have every right to be there," Pochoda said, even in cases where the child is a U.S. citizen but the parents are not.

That, he said, makes SB 1097 an illegal end-run around the Supreme Court ruling, and if the bill becomes law his organization will sue.

Pearce, however, said he is willing to take that risk for a chance.

The Pew Hispanic Center estimated several years ago that anywhere from 60,000 to 65,000 youngsters in Arizona schools are not legal residents, figures that translate to about $650 million a year in state aid and local taxes. Pearce said those numbers are low, suggesting the cost to taxpayers is at least $800 million a year, and perhaps as high a $1.5 billion. But just showing costs might not convince the high court to reverse course.

In the ruling, the court said a case might be made for denying benefits to people who purposely break the law. But he said the Texas law penalized children "who are present in this country through no fault of their own."

Mike Smith, lobbyist for the Arizona School Administrators Association, said the measure would create problems for schools. He said the legislation does not specify what documentation they need to decide whether to count a student as a legal resident or not.

Sen. Sylvia Allen, R-Snowflake, scoffed at that complaint. She said schools gather information from parents all the time, including the requirement for youngsters enrolling in school to provide a birth certificate to show their age.

Smith said even if the birth certificate qualifies, this measure creates a logistical nightmare. It would require schools to get that data from every student each year, although Pearce said once they have it from a specific child, that should suffice for the rest of the time he or she remains in the same district.

Updated: 5:58 am


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