Thread: I'd Be Ashamed

If I were an American of Hispanic descent, I'd be ashamed to have illegals here in the US. Here's why:

Parents sue over migrant-education money

By Vanessa Colón / The Fresno Bee

(Updated Wednesday, February 22, 2006, 5:22 AM)

Parents of migrant children have sued the governor, the state and other agencies because they don't want $19.2 million of unspent migrant-education money diverted to underperforming schools.

Maria Medina, a Fresno County resident and one of the plaintiffs, said many migrant children, including her daughters, will miss out on services because they don't attend underperforming schools.

"It's strictly for migrant kids. … It's supplemental funding," Medina said of the money. "It's to help them during the summer in English language arts and mathematics."

Hilary McLean, press secretary for state superintendent Jack O' Connell, said the Department of Education "will be working with Governor Schwarzenegger and the Legislature to ensure funds for migrant education are distributed in a way that benefits migrant students the most."

The suit was filed Friday in San Francisco Superior Court by California Rural Legal Assistance Inc. The legal-services group is representing two mothers and their children. The other parent is Adelaida Gutierrez of Coachella in Riverside County.

The U.S. Department of Education granted the money to the state, but not all of the migrant-education funds were spent by the end of the 2004-05 fiscal year, according to the lawsuit.

The state then developed a plan in collaboration with migrant parents to use the remaining $19.2 million, and the department of education approved the plan, McLean said.

But Schwarzenegger vetoed that plan, according to the complaint, and proposed to use the money to help underperforming and other schools comply with federal and state academic-achievement standards.

Many migrant students are left out under the governor's proposal because more than half are enrolled in schools that are achieving standards, according to the complaint. The state allocates migrant-education funding to 23 regions, which include Fresno County.

Twelve of the 27 school districts in the county wouldn't receive any of the money, according to the complaint. Kern County's school districts serve about 20,258 migrant students, and more than 60% of schools there would not receive the money.

"It means summer programs that help teach literacy won't be there. … Children won't be able to read and write as well," said Jack Daniel, directing attorney of the Fresno Migrant Farmworker Project at California Rural Legal Assistance.

Medina says many migrant children, including her 9- and 14-year-old daughters in the Golden Plains Unified School District, rely on the supplemental money to improve their English skills and obtain health services such as dental care. Medina picks tomatoes, onions and garlic and cleans cotton part of the year. She sometimes travels with her daughters to Washington to pick grapes.

Medina, president of a local migrant parent advisory committee, says:

"The program pays school nurses and doctors to help families who have no health insurance. If a child is not in good health, he or she can't do well academically. A lot of kids benefit with this money."

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Pregnancy counseling cut
Fresno County shortfall means an end to program for siblings of teen parents.

By Kerri Ginis / The Fresno Bee

(Updated Tuesday, February 21, 2006, 1:29 PM)
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Teen moms
Of every 1,000 births in Fresno County there were:
140 teen mothers in 2000
127 teen mothers in 2001
120 teen mothers in 2002
117 teen mothers in 2003
116 teen mothers in 2004

Rosa Membrila remembers watching her older brother struggle with becoming a father at the age of 15.

He was forced to drop out of school and get a job to support his new family. The pregnancy put stress on the entire family, including Rosa, who was just 7 years old at the time.

Rosa eventually got help through a Fresno County program for male and female siblings of pregnant and parenting teens. The Adolescent Sibling Pregnancy Prevention Program provides case managers who meet with teens ages 11 to 18 at least once a month and talk to them about their schoolwork and family life.

Fresno County started the program in 1997.

But because of funding cuts, the program will end March 1.

"We've touched some lives, and now this layer of support is going by the wayside," said Vivian Aldridge, the program's director. "It's very concerning because we are dealing with a very high-risk group, and it's sad that it is going away at this time."

Now 17, Rosa has been in the program for eight years.

Had it not been for the help she received, she said she would have ended up like her brother — a teenage parent.

"They just gave me a lot of information about how hard it is to be a teen and have a baby," she said. "I think it really helped because my parents never talked to me about that stuff."

County officials found out in December that funding for the program had been cut. The state sent a letter that said the federal government reduced California's share of a grant by about $2million and to avoid a budget deficit, the program was being terminated as of March 1.

Fresno County received $271,077 for the program last year. That covered administrative costs, utility bills and the monthly activities for the teens. This year, funding was decreased to $180,718 because the program is ending in March.

County officials are looking for grants to see whether they can find a way to operate the program again.

"Right now we don't have the money to keep it going," said Julie Hornback, director of the county's Employment and Temporary Assistance Department, which runs the program. "We're searching for other money. If something comes up and we can reactivate it, we will."

Fresno County has struggled with high teen pregnancy rates for years.

For every 1,000 births in 2004, 116 involved teenage mothers, according to county statistics. That's down from 2000, when there were 140 teen mothers for every 1,000 births.

Silvia Hernandez is a case manager for the program and said the teens she works with come from poor families.

She develops a plan for each teen that includes goals, such as improving the student's grade-point average or getting an after-school job.

Said Hernandez: "Most of them are not living up to their potential. For some of them, they don't have much structure in their family or they just lack motivation."

She meets with each teen at least once a month, sometimes more. She goes to their homes or school. She also organizes activities for the teens, such as attending a Fresno State football game, to expose them to life after high school.

But she said the discussions about birth control really make a difference.

"I wouldtell them that the safest is abstinence, but if they choose to become sexually active, I wanted them to know they had options to be safe," she said.

Jackie Fregoso was 12 years old when her older sister became pregnant.

She remembers how hectic it was having a baby in the house: "I knew I didn't want to have a kid young. I saw how stressed out she was," she said.

Jackie has been in the program for five years. She is now a senior at Fresno High, with good grades and a part-time job at Taco Bell.

It was the counseling she received from Hernandez that helped Jackie improve her grades. Jackie was a C student, but now gets B's in many of her classes.

Said Jackie: "I just worked

really hard to get my grades up."

Elizabeth Granados, 17, said she wishes the program would continue.

She said her case manager helped pique her interest in school. She even helped Elizabeth fill out college applications.

After she graduates this year, Elizabeth said, she wants to go to art school. She hopes to become an artist.

Elizabeth said it's unfortunate that more teens won't benefit from the program.

"There's a lot of kids that really need it," she said. "I think it's an important thing to have."

What is really embarrasing is they have a migrant-education money fund in the first place.