|
Contributors
Patrick
Mallon -
Columnist
 Arnold:
The "Elephant" is Immigration
The root of California's education problem...
[Patrick Mallon] 1/11/05
As
a persistent surveyor of California education policies and
attendant inclination
of the state's legislature and teacher's
union to emphasize self-esteem, revisionist indoctrination and
sexual orientation into the classroom at the expense of basic
academics, it was with low expectations that I read an eruption
of stories on our "failing schools" delivered by the
politically routine press on January 4.
The writers were reacting to a just-issued Rand report titled:
California's K-12 Schools: How Are They Doing?
One story stated the
report's intent: "The nonpartisan
Rand Corporation examined every measurable aspect of California
schools, from student achievement to teacher qualifications and
facilities. The report was commissioned by the William and Flora
Hewlett Foundation, which supports educational, environmental
and social issues."
A sampling of the headlines:
- "Study offers Grim Look at Schools" (LA
Times)
- "Bleak
Report on State's Schools" (Orange County Register)
- "California
Schools 3rd-worst in nation" (Long Beach Press
Telegram)
- "California's
Flunking" (Contra Costa Times)
- "Study shows
schools in crisis" (Ventura County Star)
The substantiation spread throughout these columns stood predictable
as hard cheese: insufficient funding, class-sizes, teacher salaries
and qualifications, and the adverse impact of 1978's Proposition
13.
While offering legitimate details about the crumbling education
system, the tendered reasons were indistinguishable from the
incomplete explanations offered in the 1990s, and as moldy as
those offered in the 1980s.
A demographically systemic challenge far more culturally explosive
than existed 20 years ago certainly deserves a more inventive,
honest, and unafraid examination than that presently offered
by the high-ranking education professionals whose expertise has
led a generation of students down the brave path of the unprepared.
The Contra
Costa Times hinted at the core problem stating, "When
family conditions like poverty and English language deficiencies
were factored into the national results, California scored dead
last in reading, 46th in math."
The LA
Times danced
with: "A growing portion of these students
come from low-income families or are immigrants who are still
learning English." One might expect a paper like the Times,
with its impressive research capabilities, to quantify for their
readership what number this "growing portion" is.No
dice.
The libertarian Orange
County Register, interminably enlightening
readers on Latino education issues, refuses to make the critical
association of a student's lack of legal status on underperformance
on tests and grade-level learning.
Meanwhile, businesses continue to employ millions of cut-rate
illegal immigrants on a cash-only basis and/or with forged documentation;
employees who will never file a state or federal tax return.
Entire job descriptions are now dominated by Latino immigrants:
child care, landscaping, pool and home construction, dry walling,
roofing, food service, and many other categories. And these people
do a darn good job too. But there are consequences to the citizen-taxpayer,
consequences that no politician wants to touch.
According to the California Department of Education, 46 percent
of the state's 6.4 million K-12 students are Latino or Hispanic
(a classification defined as: A person of Mexican, Puerto Rican,
Cuban, Central or South American, or other Spanish culture or
origin - regardless of race).
Who is the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation?
Follow the money. The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation funded
the Rand report that everyone is reacting to. Who are they and
what is their agenda?
According
to the foundation's charter at http://www.hewlett.org/Default.htm:
"The William
and Flora Hewlett Foundation makes grants to address the most
serious social and environmental problems
facing society, where risk capital, responsibly invested, may
make a difference over time. The Foundation places a high value
on sustaining and improving institutions that make positive contributions
to society."
The foundation sponsors
an important television documentary soon to receive wide national
visibility: "First to Worst" is
Hewlett grantee John Merrow’s in-depth look at the dire
state of California’s public schools, scheduled to air
on PBS nationwide beginning in February.
"First to Worst" illustrates how the passage of Proposition
13 combined with other factors to seriously weaken California’s
public schools.
Prop 13 is the 1978 tax reform amendment that capped property
taxes and transferred school funding from local control to state
control. Instead of a reliably stable funding source, property
taxes, schools are now funded by state revenues, which rise and
fall based on the economy, but more importantly, by taxable income.
According to the California Employment Development Department
(EDD):
"The Internal
Revenue Service recently estimated that the federal government
is losing $195 billion per year in revenue
due to underground activity. In addition, it is estimated the
size of the underground economy is anywhere from 3 to 40 percent
of the aboveground economy. Based on this estimate, the California
underground economy is estimated to be $60 to $140 billion."
It is conservatively estimated that 30 percent of the state's
workers get paid in cash and many don't file tax returns. What
percentage of California's estimated three to five million undocumented
workers fit into this category is unknown, but there are number
crunchers in government qualified to make an intelligent guess.
Nor do we know the actual number of struggling immigrant children
who attend California K-12, because no one in government wants
you, or I, to know.
If the governor, an honorable man to be sure, wants credibility,
he would deliver this information with courage. The state's education
budget constitutes the biggest piece of California's fiscal pie.
How can we reconcile it without an audit of every fiscal asset
and liability?
Why a huge, unknown number of the state's school kids are indifferent
to traditional subjects like citizenship, civics, history, geography
and American government should be relatively obvious. It's nearly
impossible to succeed in subjects like these when fearful kids
have no legal status other than that the law requires the state
to educate them.
Many of these kids
are bitter, cannot legally share in the American dream, and
see no hope in high SAT scores or good grades. For
what? And sadly, many Latinas end up having children to qualify
for benefits as soon as their baby is born – an American
citizen with a ticket, a mom without.
According to the governor in his state of the state speech:
"In
every meeting I attend in Sacramento, there's an elephant in
the room. In public, we often act like it's not there. But,
in private, you come up to me... Republicans and Democrats
alike... and you tell me the same thing, 'Arnold, if only
we could change the budget system. But the politics are just
too dangerous."
The elephant's in your court governor. The issue isn't about
inept teachers. Though the state has their share, the majority
of teachers are dedicated professionals committed to a quality
education for kids, no matter what the obstacles or frustrations.
The facts are these: 6.4 million kids now collectively rank
48th out of the 50 states in scholastic achievement. 50 percent
of Latino students drop out before graduating from high school.
Almost entire school populations in Los Angeles, Monterey, Santa
Barbara, and the Central Valley are comprised of students whose
parents are, and many themselves are, migrant workers who are
here on a transitional, under-the-table employment basis. This
unstable condition makes a productive classroom experience for
affected students a farce by all definitions.
After the governor's
speech, Sarah Shaw, a high school English teacher in Costa
Mesa responded to the implication that education
problems are the fault of teachers alone. "It felt like
a slap in the face. Schwarzenegger made it sound like teachers
were responsible for all the state's shortcomings in education.
It's an insult."
The greater insult
would be for the governor to ignore the state's "elephant
in the room" and the extraordinary impact illegal immigration
has on the composition of the classroom, the overall performance
of the students, and the continuously declining quality of education
in a state that once boasted award winning schools.
And no, the Rand Corporation
did not "examine every measurable
aspect of California schools," nor did the elite media.
Will Arnold? CRO
Patrick
Mallon is a political journalist and author of California
Dictatorship: How Liberal Extremism Destroyed Gray Davis.
[read an excerpt]. Patrick
is a regular guest on talk radio programs throughout
the state
and nationally. He can be contacted
at patrick@patrickmallon.com
copyright
2005 Patrick Mallon
|
