Mexican residents filling U.S. schools (US citizens but Mexico residents)

[rainbow4321]

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/042907dntswmexischools.1778bde.html


Thousands of Mexican children are flocking across the U.S. border to attend school, sparking a debate in towns along the border over whether U.S. taxpayers should have to bear the costs of educating them.

The border crossing is so common in El Paso that officials opened a special lane just for students this month. The Houston Chronicle reported Sunday that more than 1,200 people passed through that lane from Mexico on a recent morning. Some were college or private school students, but many were coming to attend public schools.

The influx has prompted complaints from those opposed to spending U.S. tax dollars to teach students from Mexico. The issue is especially timely in El Paso, where the school district – which expects to take in 10,000 new students in the next five to eight years – is preparing for a $230 million bond election for new schools next month.

Although many school officials are unhappy about the situation, they say there are few ways to control the number of Mexican residents attending their schools. As long as a parent or guardian has proof of residency in that school district – such as a water bill or lease – their child can attend. Many of the students were born in U.S. hospitals, making them U.S. citizens who live in Mexico. Others use the addresses of American friends or relatives.

[EFerrari]

1. Those damn Mexicans are coming AGAIN!

[buff2]

2. There is no control in this country anymore

No control in Government and no control at the borders. Come one,come all. Doesn't mean a damn if there could be terrorists slipping through. No....don't try to stop them,it might hurt someone's feelings and be politically incorrect. :eyes:

[Tom Joad]

5. A band of 4th graders may, at some point, decide to overthrow the US government

because we didn't stop them in time!

[buff2]

7. Ha ha ha

That is so funny I forgot to laugh.You support them. I'm not.

[EFerrari]

14. Obviously, since you're fine with your government

sabatoging free elections in Mexico that elect progressives.

Maybe you are just against brown people or furriners? Because you seem to have no clue that your own government makes their homes unlivable and forces them to come north to feed their families.

Have another glass of kool aid.

[EFerrari]

11. 4rth graders couldn't do worse than BushCo is doing. n/t

[SteelPenguin]

3. I'd have more sympathy

If this didn't already happen in the United States with people wanting to go to a different district and doing the exact same thing to 'prove' their residency in particular districts. It's far more prevalent in this country than people realize.

The biggest problem is that they're not paying into the system at all, which if we had rational laws wouldn't be an issue. Our laws make these kids citizens of our country, and yet because their parents aren't citizens they're abandoned by their own country. What's up with that? Those kids are American's too, and I wonder how many of their parents would much rather live in El Paso and pay taxes legally for those schools. They do this because we've abandoned our own, both legally and spiritually. It's hard to fault them.

The root problem with illegal immigrants, and cross border 'offenses' like these is that there are people in OUR country who want to pay people less than minimum wage for work, and illegals are willing to take less than minimum wage. Those exploitative bastards are the ones who should be under the crosshairs here. INS should be hounding them from sea to shining sea. Not Estevan Rodriguez who works hard and just wants his American son to get a good education.

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

[EFerrari]

8. Welcome to DU, SteelPenguin.

We might also remember that the US government has done it's best to subvert elections in Mexico that might right their economy and allow people to stay home.

[sam sarrha]

4. when i lived in El Paso the conservative estimate was about 27,000 mexican citizens in the schools

our property taxes had a $556 annual tax to provide free hospital care for Mexican citizens.

only 27% of the cars on the road were insured.. and uninsured driver insurance was astronomical, and if you do get hit by one the law says you can only collect by sueing the insurance company in court.

i guess it isnt a problem if you dont live there..:shrug:

[EFerrari]

6. Or if you don't count the taxes paid by those people

out of their pitiful wages.

Wake up and smell the spin.

[sam sarrha]

37. they make $4.34 a DAY in Mexico.. their taxes dont seem to effect my property taxes except to raise

them

[Telly Savalas]

41. It's not the fault of these American students that education funding is screwed up.

It is a big problem if a school district is required to educate a bunch of children but don't have the property tax base to properly fund the system. This is just as true in places like East St. Louis as it is in El Paso. So rather than using this as another excuse to scapegoat immigrants, we should focus on fixing the unjust mechanisms for funding education. Money should come from the federal government so that schools in poor neighborhoods can be of the same quality as those in rich ones.

[sam sarrha]

54. my brothers Poor neighborhood was invades by undocumented mexicans and tripled the population of

the schools with mexican kids that didn't speak a word of english or read spanish.. my niece didn't even learn to do fractions by the 7th grade

it IS a problem even if you dont live in it

[Telly Savalas]

58. Did you even read my fucking post?

[PsN2Wind]

16. I'm with you on this Sam

If they were busing them to San Francisco schools instead of those in Santa Cruz, Pima, and Cochise counties, I guess I wouldn't give a shit either.

[EFerrari]

20. "Them"? You have only your own government to blame

if those nasty brown people show up in your town.

What the fuck do you expect, if your government subverts elections in Latin America? If the progressives that are elected are not seated? Geezus.

And, btw, San Francisco has a huge Latino community and we are all learning to mambo.

It seems to me that you don't give enough of a shit to figure out that the same people ripping you off are ripping those people off, too.

[PsN2Wind]

24. I do give a shit about our government

not enforcing the border, nor the workplace but I'll bet that those of us in the border counties in the border states pay a helluva lot greater price to educate, medicate and incarcerate illegal aliens than you in San Francisco. The Pima County Sheriff is pulling deputies off anti-crime units on the streets of Tucson to send them into the desert to try to reduce the violence by Mexican Nationals robbing the illegals, coyotes and mules.
So enjoy learning the Mambo which, by the way, is a Cuban dance.

[EFerrari]

26. My people have been coming here since time immemorial.

And nothing will ever stop that. In fact, we're here.

Try preventing your government from subverting the elections of Latin American countries. See what happens. Do you honestly believe these people want to leave their HOMES to come to this place just to piss you off? It must be nice to live in your bubble.

This is a situation totally created by the United States corporate interests. And it is in their interest to pit worker against worker.

And, yes, the mambo is a Cuban dance. In Latin American, we aren't xenophobic about DANCES, let alone about hunger or thirst.

[Horse with no Name]

39. We have a great deal of illegal immigrants in my area

in the three wrecks that my cars have been involved in, they were all uninsured Americans.
I guess that doesn't matter?:shrug:
Uninsured motorists is NOT a problem that is specific to illegal immigrants although *many* would like for you to believe it.
It is a poverty issue and being legal or illegal really has nothing to do with it.

[Telly Savalas]

42. Presumably uninsured motorists should be shipped to Mexico regardless of their citizenship.

[Solo_in_MD]

9. The district can force better residency documentation

and if ICE made them wait in line, it would tend to stop such things

[EFerrari]

10. How would ICE help American citizens be spared these

raids?

Give me a fucking break.

[Solo_in_MD]

36. What raids are you talking about

I pointed out that other school disctricts get very hard over on documenting residency and that there was no compelling Federal need in creating a express lane for students.

[EFerrari]

56. ICE is cordoning off school parking lots and picking up moms

who have just dropped off their kids.

We have to get this straight but imprisoning 7 yr olds doesn't seem to me to be the best way to go about this. :(

[Igel]

12. Yes.

Some school districts check on their students' residency if there's some hint--any hint--that they don't live in-district.

Start calling or visiting each kid's parents. If they're not the parents or can't show that the kid actually lives there at least 5 days a week during the school year, the kid's expelled.

[EFerrari]

13. So, you are advocating that children be expelled from school

for political reasons?

Is this DU or have I wandered into Free Republic?

[BeHereNow]

30. Amen Sfexpat2000, pass out the brown shirts.

I just lost two students due to a district issue- never mind that
their parents both work in my district and are therefore eligible
to enroll their kids here under "open enrollment" policies
which are designed to help the families, who for various reasons-
theirs being a transportation issue related to the parents
place of employment, need to enroll their students in schools
close to their place of employment.

I hate to think of what will happen to them in their
home districts. Gang infested thuggery districts
with piss poor teachers and administration.

Both kids were thriving in our school- they will most
certainly slip throught the cracks in their home district.

So sad.

BHN

[Solo_in_MD]

38. There is nothing wrong given the current structure with the district making sure that students

attending actually live there. Change the means of funding, and that would change too.

[EFerrari]

44. What else can we do to children given the current "means of funding"?

[Solo_in_MD]

45. As a former teacher, my initial response is to first shoot all the educrats

A more reasoned reponse would be for locality weighted funding from a Federal level.

[EFerrari]

55. It's such a shame that the kids have to pay for political stupidity

I hope we can do better.

[sandnsea]

19. poor parents, poor kids to educate

doesn't matter where they come from, that's the way a labor exploitive economy is going to work.

[EFerrari]

23. People really don't get it.

Where there are workers to exploit, it will happen.

And the mass media will scream that aliens are coming.

It's sickening.

[seasat]

15. What needs to be done is help Mexico build schools

If we spent just a small portion of the aid we send to some other countries in directly helping Mexico build good schools and hire good teachers, then they wouldn't need to come across the border. If we helped them in other areas like hospitals and infrastructure, they could produce jobs and wouldn't need to come across the border for that. In the long run, it would reduce crushing poverty in Mexico, eliminate billions we spend in border security, and reduce illegal immigration. We throw away 10's of billions on countries that could care less about us. Why not help raise the standard of living in one of our neighbors?

[EFerrari]

17. No. We need to stop subverting Mexican elections --

although building schools would be nice.

The last time out, they elected a progressive. BushCo sent their team down there and -- presto -- the conservative corrupt bastards were seated again.

We really have to get over this idea that Mexico can't chose good leaders. We have to own that we sabatoge their leaders for our corporate mafia's gain.

There are many threads in the archives on this last Mexican federal election that the Bush government subverted. They even sent speech writers, for Christ's sake.

It's not rocket science. It's a business decision made by our ruling mafia and sold to us as these creepy people who want to steal into this country. :puke:

[seasat]

27. Agree on the elections, however I think we still need to help them.

It would actually work better with a progressive leader. There'd be less corruption to deal with.

[EFerrari]

28. First we need to deal with the corruption in our own governement..

Mexico elected a progressive leader and BushCo made sure he wasn't seated.

[earth mom]

21. Great idea! Except.....

If the U.S. g'ment helps the poor Mexican population, then U.S. businesses no longer have a huge cheap worker population to exploit.

Your idea just makes too much sense so forgetaboutit! Because obviously the U.S. g'ment and U.S. businesses know better. :sarcasm:

[sandnsea]

32. Repulicans like this

This is their plan. See Tom Delay's Mariana Island "petrit dish" on which the Guest Worker program is based.

Mexico is their idea of heaven.

If the bottom half of the US doesn't wake up in a hurry, we're going to be headed for Mexico to find some place where you can live in squalor without going to jail. That's probably why they aren't building the fence ALL the way across the southern border, they have to leave room for the "low-lifes" to get out.

[seasat]

34. Republicans plan on aiding Mexico?

I've never seen one call for giving direct financial aid to Mexico to help them reduce poverty and increase education. Most I've seen want to lock down the borders and make a silly attempt to round every undocumented worker back and deport them. You've also got the cheap labor conservatives that support a guest worker program but without the same wage and labor protections we give US citizens. Heck, the only financial aid they like to give out is mainly for purchasing US weapons.

[sandnsea]

35. Their Mexican investments

They like the cheap labor and Mexican investments. I said they like Mexico the way it is, and that the US is going to be that way shortly if the bottom 50% doesn't wake up.

[sandnsea]

18. My son went to a migrant elementary school

In Oregon. It was fine. If you want the people to work in the fields at crap wages, you can at least educate their kids.

ANYBody who does these jobs will be low income and the problem will be the same. That's what happens when your economy is based on exploiting the labor of the poor.

[EFerrari]

22. And when your government subverts elections in Latin America

making sure that people will need to leave their beloved homes.

[devilgrrl]

25. Cool, now they learn creationism and be left behind too!

:sarcasm:

[nomatrix]

29. Reading the article

it explains that in El Paso, the property taxes of those who own real estate, will increase to build new schools for the huge influx of students.

This is true for any public school, who has an increase of students no matter what race, color or creed. The problem is, because this increase is not directly equal to increased property ownership to balance the influx, the burden falls on the residents of those city or towns in their property assessments.

[sandnsea]

31. Who Pays The Rent

that covers the property taxes. The people with kids in schools.

The only reason anybody notices these kids at all is because they are brown. They don't notice the illegal Irish immigrants.

The only problem with illegal immigration is that they can't organize to demand living wages and fair working conditions, which does drive labor costs down. But that's the reason these exact same people want them here in the first place.

[Marrah_G]

46. I think you are missing something here

They are talking about people who live in Mexico, and do not pay rent or property taxes here. Property taxes pay for the schools, so owners or renters within the town are the ones paying for the towns schools. If people are living in Mexico and NOT paying proerty tax within that town then they have no right to attend school there. This is not talking about illegal immigrants who live here and pay taxes or rent here. This is about children who live in Mexico, who's parents pay taxes in Mexico, using an American towns educational benefits. If towns had infinite funds or were funded by the feds, then great. But they aren't and doing this asks local property owners to fund the educations of families who do not contribute.

I cannot send my children to the public school in the next town over from me just because I want to. I don't live there and therefore my children cannot go to school there.

[sandnsea]

49. Whose addresses are they using?

Relatives who pay rent, and property taxes, in the US? If the children are US citizens, the US has a responsibility to educate them. Besides that, it's a better investment in the future than the money we're spending on the border fence. Take all that fence money and build schools and small business programs in Mexico, and we won't have illegals coming over that border.

[Marrah_G]

51. The problem is the financing

The federal government really needs to step in and help out towns that are educating alot of these children. As long as the residents have to shoulder the burden alone there will continue to un-rest because of it.

[sandnsea]

52. That's a poverty issue

School districts have the exact same problem whenever there is a majority of poor families in the district. Dividing it up as an immigrant issue in one place and an inner city in another and an Appalachian in another - misses the problem. It doesn't matter who does low income work, it doesn't pay and pays less than it has in 50 years. Poor people live in poor neighborhoods. I would bet those Mexican children are going to schools in poor neighborhoods as well, that's where the Migrant programs are. Poor is poor, no matter the color. Education is the only way out of poor. We can't keep allowing those at the top to pay wages that keep people poor, and then blaming the poor for not having the money to fund education, health care, housing, and infrastructure.

[SoCalDem]

33. School funding is bassackwards in the US. We "say" we have public education, but we really don't

Our educations system is like any other spoils system. To the victors, go the rewards. the people who have "won", and have the "nice lives, nice houses, nice jobs" are presumed to be able to afford ever-increasing taxes to pay for more and more schools, as sprawl continues.

For every new community built, there are schools "left behind" that are losing students to the "new ones". Funding to schools in poorer communities falters, and only starts the stampede. No parent ever says.."hey, this shitty school's just fine with me".. Every parent will do whatever's necessary to get THEIR kid into the best school they can, even if it means falsification of address.

Funding through property taxes is just another way to widen the gulf between the haves & the have-nots.

[dsc]

40. This is the problem with this issue

The fact is that the costs of immigration are borne by a few states while the benefits are more uniformly distributed. The federal government should, if they aren't going to control immigration better, help out areas that are hit hardest. It is a bit much to expect border districts to bear the entire cost.

[KittyWampus]

43. God Forbid Mexico educate its own kids or create its own jobs. And let me guess which DU'er

will reply by parroting about USA subverting elections bla bla bla.

The fucking GOP has been subverting elections here in the USA and slowly we're working things out.

And Mexican govt. is corrupt to the core even without USA input.

[SammyWinstonJack]

48. ..

:evilgrin:

[Rydz777]

47. The big picture

is that the powers-that-be in the United States decided years ago to absorb both Mexico and Canada into a North American economic entity centered on the existing United States. NAFTA was the cornerstone. Mexico would be the source of cheap labor; Canada the source of natural resources. All the commotion about "immigration" is just a kabuki dance.

[sandnsea]

50. That's the bottom line

And it goes on all over the world, with the same 100 or so people directing it all and they don't direct it from the White House.

[Sapere aude]

53. Just maybe if the kids get an education they might help support this economy and speak English!

Or they may help build the Mexican economy. Better still let them remain in poverty and out of sight!

[treestar]

57. It's not that bad as a practical matter

Because as US citizens they can come to the U.S. any time, why have them educated in the Mexican system? Though sometimes it is difficult to imagine one worse than ours.

Still, I think I heard that that in Mexico, you have to pay for even public school, and often can't afford to have the kids go that high, and so nothing stops people dropping out in as low as third grade.

It could only happen in border towns, too. Though it could be that their parents were deported and then stayed near the border instead of going back into Mexico?

But not doing it creates uneducated U.S. citizens, who could come over any time.