Feeding Fear in the Schools

In the aftermath of an unpleasant debate over billing foreign governments for educational costs, it is reassuring to hear teachers and administrators in the Anaheim Union High School District say they will try to keep the divisive issue of illegal immigration out of the classroom. Students have enough distractions without having to live in fear that they or their parents will be deported.

The Anaheim Union High trustees passed a resolution last month to bill the federal government for the cost of educating illegal immigrant students. The resolution said Washington should make foreign governments pay up. The four trustees who favored the motion said they knew it would have no practical effect but they wanted to air the cost of having undocumented immigrants in the classrooms. But the resolution, like other actions dealing with illegal immigrants in recent years, was divisive and needlessly raised tempers in the community. It also drew advocates on both sides into the city from outside Anaheim.

Backers of the measure said the extra money could pay for new schools, which would lessen overcrowding. Obviously, more money would be a help. The federal government should provide more than it does to help states burdened by large numbers of illegal immigrants. But school board members know they will not get extra funding. If they are serious about building new schools, they should do what other districts do and put a bond measure on the ballot.

Backers of the resolution estimate that nearly 5,000 of the district’s 30,000 students live in this country illegally. But they say that’s an estimate that uses an average of other groups’ estimates. In other words, it’s probably not accurate. They also contend that if the district were reimbursed for the cost of educating the undocumented, it would be possible to increase spending per pupil from the current $4,205 to $5,125 per year. But experts in school financing say that under current formulas there would not be an increase. The state now reimburses districts based on the number of students attending classes and rightly does not inquire into immigration status.

The district trustees say they will not kick students out, but they want the Immigration and Naturalization Service to count the undocumented students in the district. That raises fears among students and parents not in the country legally. It surely would prompt some parents to take their children out of school to avoid government officials. What all children need, of course, is to be in the classroom.

Fortunately, the INS has declined to get involved in the district’s politics and to guess which students are undocumented. The district should concentrate on education, not tilting at windmills and dividing the community it serves. The federal government, meanwhile, should see in this situation yet another example of the financial burden on local government entities.