Posted on 12/20/2005 10:31:46 AM PST by Borax Queen
PHOENIX — Republican officeholders critical of a federal judge's decision to fine the state heavily if it doesn't improve programs for students learning English are pointing a finger of blame at illegal immigration.
The judge's order in a 13-year-old lawsuit would impose daily fines starting at $500,000 and rising to $2 million on the state if the Legislature fails to adequately fund programs for an estimated 160,000 children attending Arizona public schools.
Arizona has become the busiest entry point on the southern border for illegal immigrants, and concerns related to illegal immigration are being increasingly voiced in connection with public-policy issues ranging from health care to identity theft.
Meanwhile, candidates from both major parties have identified illegal immigration as a leading issue in 2006 statewide races in Arizona.
Several key state officials reacted to U.S. District Judge Raner C. Collins' order by saying they'll work to improve the programs but also by declaring that it shouldn't be forgotten that illegal immigration — while not a primary legal issue in the school-funding case itself — is a root cause of the problem facing the state.
"There's a legitimacy to the argument that if people had not broken the law to get into our country that the taxpayers of our state wouldn't be having to absorb the financial burden of trying to educate those children," said Senate President Ken Bennett, R-Prescott.
Bennett commented after state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne reiterated his call for increased federal funding to the state to pay education costs resulting from the federal government's failure to protect the border.
Horne also expressed frustration that Collins wouldn't rule on whether the state could count federal dollars as potentially available to help pay for the English-learning programs.
"It's a big mistake to not count federal funds when the federal government created the problem in the first place," Horne said. "We've asked the congressional delegation to try to get us another $700 million to help out with a problem that they've created."
Even before the latest ruling, other Republican officeholders had linked the prospect of increased costs for English-learning instruction to immigration.
House Speaker Jim Weiers, R-Phoenix, said in June that Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano's proposal to spend more on English-learning instruction would produce "Mexico's best school district north of the border."
House Speaker Pro Tem Bob Robson, R-Chandler, later wrote in a newspaper commentary that Arizona could see its English-learning costs soar because the state is "saddled with a flood of both illegal immigrant kids and the children of illegal immigrants."
However, whether students are illegal immigrants or children of illegal immigrants hasn't been a factor in the case, largely because of a 23-year-old U.S. Supreme Court ruling, said Tim Hogan, a lawyer for the class-action plaintiffs in the English-learning case.
Citing the equal protection clause in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the 1982 ruling by the U.S. high court overturned a Texas law that withheld state funding for the education of illegal immigrant children and allowed districts to deny enrollment to those children.
"The law is clear — unequivocally clear," Hogan said. "They can try and change it all they want but in the meantime they've got to comply with it."
Besides, Hogan noted, national research by the Urban Institute indicates that most of the children requiring English-learning instruction are U.S. citizens.
Napolitano, while verbally bashing the federal government on several fronts regarding border and immigration issues, has cited education concerns when calling for action on the English-learning issue.
"She believes that Arizonans need an educated, English-speaking work force," Napolitano spokeswoman Jeanine L'Ecuyer said.
Do you think? Ping
ping
How does illegal immigration make that happen?
susie
Gee, then why do you welcome so many and protect illegals who do NOT meet your "criteria" without MASSIVE fraud on the taxpayers to pay for these illegals to be "brought up to speed"?
And given the number of Illegals that still "No Habla"...just how successful has it been?
You can find how much your school district is spending on these programs by looking at the state education website. And remember, these are your tax dollars.
Thanks, I'm going to do that. Our school district is the Los Angeles Unified (LAUSD), and I guess the numbers will be astounding, since this state "houses" several million illegal aliens.
I believe that AZ is already Mexico's "best school district" - period.
Anchor babies! Also the result of illegal immigration.
The Feds caused this problem and the Feds should pay for it. If I were Arizona I would set up a toll booth just outside the entrance to the Grand Canyon and make every non-Arizonian foot part of the bill. I would set up another toll booth on every road leading from the border.
Let him fine them. They should tell him to send his army to collect.
Thank you for the links!
por nada
When you've got a bunch of illegals over here who think "La Raza" is superior to Estados Unidos and are supported by a bunch of Leftists and RINOs who think our nation should change to accommodate the invaders, you wind up with crap like this.
They shouldn't do anything. Let the fines go until the school system is bankrupt. The fed will have to come in and run the school system. I've seen this happen in local school districts. The feds hire back all the employees because the feds can't run the system. Then everyone's on the federal payroll. So, just let it go.
About as convincing as when Bush says he is opposed to amnesty.
Gee, then why do you welcome so many and protect illegals who do NOT meet your "criteria" without MASSIVE fraud on the taxpayers to pay for these illegals to be "brought up to speed"?
Why not check the reason this liberal lesbo got into office in the first place? MASSIVE VOTING FRAUD ON THE INDIAN RESERVATIONS, which make up over a QUARTER of the state's land mass. And she only won by a very small margin. That's why she's running scared now because this time WE ARE WATCHING ... and WON'T get fooled again.
That equal protection clause should also be "unequivocally clear" as to charging illegals low in-state tuition while charging U.S. citizens from other states a rate much higher.
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