Deportation Fears Prompt Exodus From Texas City's Schools

Warren Mass
JBS
Friday, October 05, 2007

Irving, Texas, one of the larger suburbs of Dallas with an estimated population of around 200,000, is best known as the location of Texas Stadium, the home of the Dallas Cowboys. It is an ethnically diverse city where about one-third of the population is of Hispanic origin. Last year about 66 percent of Irving's public school students were Hispanic and 36 percent had limited English skills — the highest percentage of any school district in North Texas.

Irving was in the news this week because of apparent fallout stemming from the Irving Police Department's policy, begun last year, of cooperating with federal immigration authorities to identify illegal immigrants who have been arrested, and turn that information over to immigration authorities so deportation proceedings can be initiated. The Mexican Consulate recently began warning Mexican citizens to stay out of Irving because the city's police department has been cooperating with federal immigration authorities to identify illegal immigrants who have been arrested so they can be deported. Irving police have turned over more than 1,600 people to immigration officials since the program began.

In an October 3 interview with the Dallas Morning News, Irving Mayor Herbert Gears defended the fairness of his city's policy, stating: "If they're not being booked into our jail, there's nothing they should be worried about."

Mayor Gears assured parents that they need not fear that immigration officials or police would pick up their children from school campuses. Nevertheless, he stated that many Irving residents support the City Council's immigration policy, because illegal immigrants overburden social services and overcrowd public schools.

In public statements made during the mayor's human relations advisory committee meeting on October 2, Superintendent Singley seemed more concerned about the plight of illegal immigrants than about the plight of Irving's taxpayers, who must pay the bill to educate the children of those who have no legal right to be in this country. (Perhaps the educational budget is determined by total school enrollment — legal or illegal.) The Morning News article reported that Mr. Singley said he does not know how many illegal immigrant children attend Irving schools, adding that school districts usually do not verify the immigration status of their students and that public schools are required to provide a "free" education to illegal immigrant children.

We wonder if Irving taxpayers, when reviewing the portion of their property tax bill allocated for the Irving ISD, regard so-called public education as "free."

There are two equally important, though separate, issues coming into play in this story that are worthy of comment.

The first is the injustice of forcing taxpaying, law-abiding U.S. citizens to bear the oppressive burden of financing the education — and other social services — provided to thousands of illegal immigrants who legally have no right to be in this country. One might as well require homeowners to feed, clothe, and educate the children of burglars breaking into their homes.

The second issue is not as often discussed, because public education has been institutionalized in our nation for so long that most people regard it as a right. Public education, as the term is usually used in this country, is a misnomer, however. In the United Kingdom, where more precise English prevails, "public schools" (e.g., Eton) are independent schools generally open to any fee-paying member of the public. In Britain, the more accurate terms "state school" and "county school" are used for schools provided at public expense.

Americans who are critical of the so-called public education system generally prefer the term "government schools" to refer to those institutions supported by the taxpayers through local property taxes, and subsidized by federal education funds.

Whatever they are called, however, public schools are the result of a concept of state-controlled education imported from socialist Prussia by 19th century "progressive" educators such as Horace Mann. They are politically, intellectually, and morally dangerous — and financially unjust.

Politically, intellectually, and morally dangerous, because, by placing control of the curriculum under authority of the state, they give the state the power to determine what children shall be taught, including what moral values should be imparted.

Financially unjust, because they force taxpayers who have no need for public education (the childless, and those whose children have grown), as well as those who choose alternate education for their children (in religious schools, or by homeschooling) to shoulder a responsibility that rightfully belongs to the parents of the children being educated.

In Irving, Texas, today, we see the convergence of two bad ideas (poor federal immigration enforcement and coercive public education), and one good solution. The city's policy of cooperating in the deportation of illegal immigrants is the correct one.

Click here to discuss this story in our forum Yahoo! MyWeb Del.icio.us Digg Print Email This Page to: