School Districts Reducing Aid for Migrants : Education: Drop in state funding forces cutbacks. Officials say many students won’t get the tutoring and counseling they need.

Deep cuts in state funding for Ventura County’s migrant education programs are forcing local school districts to scale back extra classroom help offered to children of farm workers.

To direct scarce federal migrant-education funds to the neediest children, the state Department of Education has begun giving the bulk of the program’s money to children who have been uprooted recently.

In Ventura County, the July 1 change will mean a 25% cut in migrant funds to $2.4 million this fiscal year, hitting districts in Oxnard, Santa Paula and Fillmore the hardest.

Only about half of the 8,000 county students who qualified for full funding under the program meet the newer, tighter guidelines, educators said.

As a result, many Spanish-speaking students who still need extra tutoring and counseling offered under the migrant program will no longer get it, said Kathy Cooper, who runs the program for the Oxnard School District.

“Many of these children come straight from Mexico,” Cooper said. “They do not have the English language. They have never lived in our culture. So the teacher and the instructional assistant become their lifeline to school.”

Under the new state guidelines, most of the program’s money goes to students who have changed districts in the last two years instead of within the last six. That’s particularly significant in this county because an increasing number of local farm worker families are staying put.

The change is appropriate, state education officials said, because the most recent migrants have the greatest need for tutoring, counseling and other special services.

But some Ventura County educators said they do not expect migrant students to overcome cultural barriers and language differences in only two years.

“Kids whose parents work in agriculture are unique,” said Joe Mendoza, migrant education coordinator for the Ventura County superintendent of schools. “What’s going to happen, No. 1, is these children are going to fall through the cracks.”

Because of the funding cuts, fewer Ventura County children will have access to bilingual assistance aimed at curbing high dropout rates among migrant students, educators said.

“It’s really significant,” said Walt Dunlop of Oxnard Union High School District, where migrant funding will be cut by one-third. “I know parents are quite concerned.”

In the past, the state officials gave districts about $400 per year for each migrant student whose family had moved within the last 12 months. And it allocated about $325 for children of seasonal workers who had relocated in the previous six years.

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But this school year the state will pay about $325 for migrant students who have moved within the previous two years. And it will give only $125 for migrant students who have relocated in the last six years.

State officials said they changed the program in California because they expect Congress to tighten eligibility this summer and restrict use of program funds similarly.

“It is not a secret that we have to face change,” said Vicki Lee, an analyst in the state’s migrant program. “The feds have always pressed us to place a priority on the mobile child, so we’re really trying to move in that direction.”

In Ventura County, about 8,000 migrant students have moved within the last six years, but only about half in the last two years, Mendoza said.

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As a result, migrant education funding to Ventura County school districts will fall from about $3.2 million in 1993-94 to $2.4 million for 1994-95.

In the Oxnard School District, funding has been cut from $627,970 to $458,905. In the Oxnard Union High School District, the cut is from $403,684 to $267,382. In Fillmore, funding will drop from $218,819 to $123,047, and in the Ocean View district near Port Hueneme the loss is from $143,753 to $93,728. Santa Paula’s loss is from $115,536 to $81,286. Moorpark school funding drops from $110,960 to $77,810.

Oxnard’s Cooper explained that Ventura County farm workers are less transient now. Instead of picking strawberries in the spring and then moving to the Central Valley for the summer harvest, they now generally stay put.

Many families are finding local field work throughout the year, educators said. Others are changing to different occupations.

Although the number of recent migrants is declining steadily in Oxnard, the elementary school district still has 1,250 students eligible for the federal program. To cope with the funding cuts, the district may have to cut program teachers’ aides from 12 to five.