Ch.9+resources

   Denise Alexander Chapter 9: New Immigrants and Schools Illegal immigrants face many challenges in America. These individuals often do not speak English and have insufficient education to acquire high-paying jobs. The children of these individuals also face many obstacles. The children must try to get an education in a foreign language and foreign culture. Unfortunately, America’s immigration laws do not allow for many individuals to immigrate to America legally. The children of these families must be provided an education if the children are to be successful, productive members of American society. To deny these children an education is to risk creating a group of children that will develop into adults who are dependent on government assistance and jobs that pay less than minimum wage. In order to provide these children with the opportunity to be successful, the children must be given an education. The problem that arises, in my opinion, is not whether to educate the children, but how to fund their education. Many individuals work very hard to ensure that their children receive a quality education. It seems unfair to ask these hardworking individuals to fund the education of someone else’s child. However, if these families do not fund the education of these immigrant children, they may ultimately fund the government programs that will be required to assist these individuals in adulthood. The parents of these immigrant children do not have the funds to pay for their children’s schooling and do not pay taxes, so they are not contributing to the cost of educating their own children. I contend that education is always a sound investment. I believe that the more socio-economically advantaged families should contribute to the education of these immigrant children, not because we should redistribute wealth, but rather because an educated populace provides for a better society. The money is an investment in a more productive society and in the future positive growth of our country. Hopefully, these immigrant families can work to gain legal status and begin to contribute to their children’s education. Unfortunately, there appears to be no solution that will meet the needs and desires of all Americans. 

 Lisa Banavich Reaction Paper- Chapter 9 EDUC 610 When I first began reading about the topic of immigrants and education, I was finding it very difficult to pick a side. First and foremost as a human being, you want to help people in need. Immigrants are some of the neediest individuals in our country today. How can I turn someone away who needs help? But as I read more, I started to think about how hard it is to help everyone- especially if some of those people are not supposed to be here in this country. I found myself going back and forth over what I really thought about this topic. If schools did not educate immigrants, what would have happened to the many individuals who came to the U.S. from their home countries to find a better life? Would our country still be the same if those people hadn’t had the opportunity to participate in our educational system? My own family would most likely not be the same, as would be the case for many families in our country. But, the reality is that the immigration of my own family happened over 80 years ago. The number of immigrants during that time is greatly surpassed today by the number of immigrants now in the U.S. How can our education system be expected to take care of and teach all of these students? I understand teaching the immigrants who are here legally, but realistically, that number is a lot lower than those who are here in our country illegally. This is certainly not the fault of the children, but U.S. schools really cannot be held responsible for the education of students who are not legal citizens of our country. Along with the problem of the sheer numbers of immigrants in schools comes the fact that this creates an environment that is, at times, detrimental to education. The language barrier brings many communication difficulties, including the potential for significant misunderstandings that could lead to physically violent situations. How can we tell students that school is a safe place when an environment such as this is created? As the author of Position #2 stated, I agree that we first need to get our borders under control; have clear procedures and policies for immigration/illegals; and have minimum education requirements for immigrants. This should provide a good start to how we will deal with our immigration problems.

 

 Maura Costello Education 610 Dr. Patricia Williams

The privatization of schools is one of the biggest issues in education today. More schools every year open up or become private due to failing scores and unsafe conditions in the public schools. The schools go from being government operated to privately operated. The question is, does it make things better for students to have private companies and corporations run the schools? Schools today face so many issues, and public education is not equipped to accommodate all the constant changes in society, but is privatization the answer? When the taxpayers see that their money is being spent be without progress, it becomes an issue, “Public schools spend increasing amounts of taxpayer money while becoming more and more mediocre”. Private schools and charter schools also have a benefit because they have the ability to create a theme of the school such as science, math or technology, which makes them marketable especially to those students that have more of an interest in specific subjects. There are contradicting results for private and charter schools, critics that are for private institutions argue that these schools improve test scores and performance among the students. However, critics against privatization claim that even with these new schools whether they are private or charter, there is not a significant change or improvement in test scores and performance. Either way it is for certain that the students in this country are falling behind on the global scale, so something needs to change. These private corporations think that running education like a business will improve results, but is it just another way to make money and what is their interest in changing the schools, “is it good public policy or just corporate propaganda?” No matter what direction of education is best, all that matters is what works for the children to improve their learning. If charter and private schools fuel competition for the public schools than that can only be a positive effect. Students today learn very differently then students even 10 years ago did, society moves much faster today and the education system in the United States needs to catch up with the times.



 Kelly McCaffrey Chapter 9 New Immigrants and the Schools:

Unfair Burden or Business as Usual  As I read this chapter, I found myself becoming more and more enraged. The chapter begins with explanations of why schools should offer free opportunity to all children of new immigrants. The second position explains why children of new immigrants are burdens to schools. It is true that children coming into this country who speak another language are going to need extra support in learning the language. And this extra support does cost more money. But to say that our country needs to reform immigration as an effort to put more focus on our own American citizens and not children of new immigrants is absurd. Children are children and deserve to be educated…period. To be clear, I am not referring to illegal immigrants. I am referring to tax-paying immigrants who have moved to our country and respect and honor The United States of America. Their children are entitled to the same education as any native American child. Our country prides ourselves in being a “melting pot” or more recently a “salad bowl”. Our country was created by immigrants and we are lucky to have people from all over the world who have chosen to be a part of it. One of the most important things one can learn in life is be accepting of other human beings regardless of their race, color, ethnicity, culture, etc. The best way to teach this is through exposure. The book argues that “immigrants from highly diverse cultural, tribal, religious, and economic backgrounds, when mixed in the schools, create conditions for significant misunderstandings and potentially explosive environments.” (Nelson, Palonsky, and McCarthy, p.221) The beginning of this quote is very positive because what makes our country so great is that we have people from highly diverse cultural, tribal, religious, and economic backgrounds that we have the opportunity of interacting with everyday. But somehow the author’s see this as a negative thing. They actually use the phrase “potentially explosive environments” to describe the results of having children of new immigrants in our schools. My first thought after reading that statement was “Are we still talking about children?”



<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Amanda Moseley

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Chapter 9 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">A United States Immigration reform is an extremely controversial topic in today’s society. Before making any decisions whether or not to educated illegal children, American must consider the strain that immigration and especially illegal immigration is placing on American public services. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> If the United States were to educate illegal children it would run into many problems such as financial burdens and overcrowding in schools. And to put it simply…it goes against our Constitution-“the law of the land”. T <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">he first sentence of the  <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">[|Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> lays out, in detail, the laws pertaining to citizenship in the United States. Chief Justice Warren Burger argues that it is not the Courts responsibility to allow the education of illegal immigrants it is the legislative branch who must act change or implement a new legal system pertaining to illegal immigrant education. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Illegal alien children are entitled to special solicitude under the Equal Protection Clause because they lack “control” or “responsibility” for their unlawful entry into the United States. However, their parents do! It is the immigrant’s responsibility to gain citizenship the legal and appropriate way to be able to become recipients of the United State governmental benefits. The importance of education in non-disputable, but it is not considered a fundamental right according to our law system. Fundamental rights may include food, shelter, or healthcare. Illegal immigrants are excluded from numerical social welfare programs, such as food stamps, Medicare, and help for the disabled. Burger questions whether courts are suggesting that education is more “fundamental” that the necessities humans. Burger also argues it is the states right to reasonably or constitutionally, elect to provide illegal immigrants with governmental services at the expense of those who are lawfully in the state. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Many people and local government officials in these high-immigration states feel that they should not have to foot the bill for services used by illegal immigrants who are in the U.S. because the federal government has failed to enforce immigration laws and police borders. Why should American suffer because of an illegal resident’s actions? I am not suggesting that immigrants do not come to America in hope for opportunity, but there is legal way to do so. Chief Justice Warren Burger states that the failure of enforcement of the immigration laws over more than a decade have combined to create a grave socioeconomic dilemma. He suggests the branches of government must do their job to effectively lead our nation. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Educated illegal alien children will cause a huge financial burden for some school districts. Education cost billions of dollars annually for legal residents. With the cost of illegal aliens added in, the cost could double. In some states, drastic cuts mean lay-offs for teachers, larger class sizes, fewer textbooks, and eliminating sports, language programs, and after-school activities. This is the case now in Pennsylvania, which is not a high immigration state. Imagine the effects of the economy and the impact of illegal children freely placed into the American schooling systems.