My town board is starting to disucss our crowded schools. Is there any merit to what these two posters have posted below?! Could this issue be on a referendum? I had always thought that it was a federal issue. Last week there was news of a Chicago principal who was fired because he refused to let anymore students enter -his school was overcrowded already. I looked at the class lists at my children's school -crowded and heavy with the last names from the country below us. Anyway, I think there was a illegal alien child in this area who a district didn't want to admit and the state of Illinois said they would deny the district any state funds. So what if cities and states started tackling this issue as well?! I've heard so many tales of illegals having cousins and other relatives come up here so they could attend the schools...

http://www.waukegan.org/Forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=5514
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Danno
Senior Member



702 Posts
Posted - 08/27/2006 : 13:28:20
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I'd like to start a movement to put the issue of the school district having to educate those who are not legally admitted to this country on a referendum.

It would not allow our school district to use any funds from taxpayer sources for the education of children who were not legally admitted into the United States.

I'm assuming a petition would be necessary to start the process.

Does anyone know the process of how to put an issue to referendum?

Could this even be done by referendum or would it have to be done by a legislative body?



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Originally posted by celerity

I think this a futile movement.

1. Supreme Court already ruled on this.

WAUKEGAN CANNOT OVERRULE THE U.S. SUPREME COURT.


2. The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the land and guarantees everyone who resides in the United States to a free and public education.

WAUKEGAN CANNOT OVERRULE THE CONSTITUTION

3. Federal Law and statutory codes all include the education of undocumented immigrants.

WAUKEGAN CANNOT OVERRULE CONGRESS

4. The Illinois School Code guarantees certain rights to ESL/Bilingual students

WAUKEGAN CANNOT OVERRULE THE ILLINOIS STATE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

5. Governor Blagojevich, the only governor in the country, established a special office to help undocumented immigrants and was courageous enough to sign a declaration in support of comprehensive immigration reform, the bill jointly sponsored by Ted Kennedy/John McCain which would provide a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

WAUKEGAN CANNOT OVERRULE AN EXECUTIVE ORDER SIGNED BY THE GOVERNOR OF ILLINOIS

While not officially citizens, they are human beings and are entitled to basic human and civil rights. Education falls under the civil rights and human rights umbrella.

What has happened in some other states are statewide referenda that eliminate bilingual education, forcing instruction to only be in English. California did this. I don't know if Illinois has a referendum policy and what the procedure is, you can try to get that accomplished. I don't think it's a good idea, but hey this is a democracy.

Also, in the meantime, if you care about the future of the Waukegan Public Schools which have a reverberating effect on so much in Waukegan, you should be caring about how do we best educate the undocumented immigrants who are here, because their test scores affect the Waukegan Schools and by extension Waukegan as a whole.



"Though I may disagree with what you say, I will defend to the death your right to say it."
--Voltaire--

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DANNO

I think you may be mistaken on many of your points. I doubt your no. 2 point is correct. I don't think the Constitution guarantees an education to illegal aliens. I doubt your no. 3 point as well. I don't think there are any such federal laws.

True the Supreme Court has already ruled on this but anything can be challenged and go back to the supreme court for a new ruling.

The case that went before the Supreme Court dates to 1982 and came out of Texas appeals court and is titled Plyler v. Doe. You can read it here:

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/g ... &invol=202

I believe this court conceded that education is not a fundamental right of illegal aliens.

The case was decided on a close 5 to 4 voteto begin with and the dissenting opinion is especially good. Please read it.

Justice Berger, in the dissenting opinion, said: "If the State is to deny a discrete group of innocent children (illegal immigrants) the free public education that it offers to other children residing within its borders, that denial must be justified by a showing that it furthers some substantial state interest."

The state of Texas failed to address that important issue at that time and never went back to show a substancial burden on the state finances for having to educate illegal aliens. And the burden is certainly greater now than it was in 1982 in that regard.

I believe it would be possible to show that such a denial of a free education "furthers some substantial state interest".
I believe that is all that would be required to prevail. Of course it would probably need to go all the way back to the supreme court.

If the state or even our local school district enacted a policy that denied a free education to illegal aliens it would most certainly be challenged. I could go all the way back to the Supreme Court and be decided in favor of the denial too. The climate is much different now than it was in 1982.

So does anyone know how to get it on a referendum?