Ties that bind erase boundaries
August 27th, 2007, 3:42 pm · 5 Comments · posted by Joaquin
The Herald’s stories this week on students with Matamoros ties attending Brownsville schools reveal a familiar educational undercurrent in a border community like the one we live in. For generations, students living in Matamoros, or with close family ties to the city, have attended schools in Brownsville.
It’s something everyone knows is commonplace, but there have never been any precise numbers as to how many. The Brownsville Independent School District can’t venture to give an accurate guess, to be honest, and they’re not obligated to do so. What they are required to do is to make their best effort to make sure students attending local schools live within the district’s boundaries.
They likely only do a marginal job in meeting that responsibility. The school district is too big, the city is too sprawling, and there is not enough staff dedicated to the task. Should there be? Chisme guesses most Brownsville residents would say yes, but what sort of difference would it make in trying to untangle the interlocking ties of Brownsville and Matamoros?
By federal law and under a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling, the Brownsville school district cannot deny access to public education to a student who is in the country illegally. Access can be denied, however, if a student is not living within district boundaries, no matter a child’s legal status.
In Brownsville, those lines become murky, if not erased all together. Many local students are U.S.-born, but have parents who live in Matamoros. Those same students often have relatives living in Brownsville, so by living with an uncle or aunt in Brownsville, or saying they do, they can attend schools in Brownsville. And a good many of these youths are excellent students because their motivation to succeed is usually more urgent than their Brownsville counterparts.
Take Zaira Gabriela Garate as an example. She is an 18-year-old student who recently graduated at the top of her class at Porter High School, and will attend one of America’s best universities - MIT - this fall. Garate is a U.S. citizen with parents in Matamoros, but who lived with an aunt in Brownsville to attend Porter.
In a Herald story, Garate said many of her Brownsville classmates have no idea of the deep disparity in facilities and resources between schools here and in Matamoros, saying “thousands of students in Matamoros wish they had the opportunities we have here, and (Brownsville students) are just throwing it away.”
Would Brownsville and society as a whole be better off denying educational opportunities to binational students such as Garate? No, it would not. Rules and regulations will only take you so far. Striving for better opportunities, an innate human quality, is sometimes stronger in people who are working mightily to overcome humble beginnings.
Garate didn’t take her opportunity for granted. She’s going to MIT. The migration will continue, as it always has, while school districts and federal agencies work to contain ambitions and hopes within definied borders that, at times, can be easily overcome .
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I am very sorry for those residents that live in Cameron County and Hidalgo County, can they not open their eyes and see that you are
PAYING for them to attend YOUR schools and yet they are not paying taxes, School Taxes NOR Homeowners Taxes, also recieving free lunch, and we can go on and on, So let me move into your home and sleep in your bed and eat your food, since you have allowed this for years…….
AS AN EMPLOYER IN THE RGV FOR 25 YEARS I CAN TELL YOU FROM EXPERIENCE THAT A PERSON FROM MEXICO (MEXICO TIES) USUALLY MAKES A HARDER WORKING AND BETTER EDUCATED EMPLOYEE THAN A US BORN EMPLOYEE. IN FACT, ALL THINGS BEING EQUAL, I WOULD PICK A PERSON FOR A JOB FROM MEXICO OVER A US BORN APPLICANT EVERY TIME. BUT THAT ASIDE, IT STILL IS NOT RIGHT THAT WE ALLOW PEOPLE TO DRIVE ACROSS EVERYDAY FROM MEXICO TO GO TO SCHOOL AND PISS OFF OUR TAX MONEY. AS AN EXAMPLE, HANNA’S PARKING LOT HAS SEVERAL MEXICO TAGGED CARS THERE EVERY DAY. BISD KNOWS WHO THEY ARE AND DOES NOT CARE TO WEED THEM OUT FOR WHAT EVER THE REASON. I SUSPECT MONEY FROM HEAVEN (STATE OF TEXAS) HAS SOME BEARING ON THE DECISION. BOTTOM LINE: NO MATTER HOW DEEP THE TIES TO MATAMOROS, YOU DON’T SPEND TAX MONEY ON KIDS WHO DO NOT LIVE HERE. AND LIVING HERE WITH AN AUNT OR MY SISTERS BROTHER-IN-LAWS SECOND WIFE DOES NOT COUNT UNLESS YOU HAVE A COURT ORDER. BISD IS A POORLY RUN ORGANIZATION AS EVERYONE KNOWS, BUT I DO NOT THINK THEY PUT ANY EFFORT INTO FINDING THESE KIDS BECAUSE THEY DON’T REALLY CARE IF THEY PISS OFF MY TAX MONEY.
TO BEGIN WITH IF THESE MEXICANS HAD NOT ENTERED THE COUNTRY ILLEGALLY TO HAVE THEIR KIDS THESE STUDENTS WOULD NOT BE US CITIZENS. SOME MEXICAN ARE HIGH ACHIEVERS BUT THEIR PARENTS INSTILL THE IMPORTANCE OF LEARNING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. IF MS. GARATE DID NOT MASTER THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE SHE WILL HAVE A DIFFICULT TIME AT MIT. BISD LAST YEAR HAD 44% OF STUDENT IN ESL CLASSES (ENGLISH IS A SECOND LANGUAGE) WHICH MEANS THEY SPEAK NO ENGLISH, REFUSE TO SPEAK ENGLISH OR FEEL IT IS THEIR RIGHT TO SPEAK SPANISH ONLY. YOU CAN ASK A STUDENT WHY HE OR SHE DOESN’T SPEAK ENGLISH AND THEY SAY BECAUSE THEY DON’T LIKE IT. WHAT’S THERE TO LIKE, IT’S NOT AN APPLE YOU CAN EAT. TO ENTER INTO BISD PREKINDER PROGRAM YOUR CHILD MUST NOT SPEAK THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, IT DOESN’T MATTER IF YOU PAY TAXES OR NOT, WHERE IS THE FAIRNESS TO THIS. WE HAVE STUDENT WHO WERE BORN AND RAISED HERE WITH PARENTS WHO WORKED ALL THEIR LIVES AND PAID TAXES WHO CAN’T AFFORD TO ATTEND COLLEGE AND DON’T QUALIFY FOR FINANCIAL AID, MAYBE THAT’S WHY THERE ARE MORE MEXICANS DOWN HERE WITH HIGHER EDUCATION BECAUSE THEY ARE THE ONES GETTING IT FREE. CITIZENS UP NORTH ARE NOW STARTING TO REALIZE WHAT WE’VE BEEN PUTTING UP WITH ALL THESE YEARS. THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD NOT MAKE KIDS BORN HERE FROM ILLEGAL PARENT US CITIZENS THEY SHOULD HAVE NO RIGHTS, NO FREE HANDOUTS SUCH AS HOUSING, MEDICAL, FOOD STAMPS, AND SCHOOLING.
I don’t want illegals to have our rights.
Re-read the article, folks, since you’re so literate in English. A good many of the students in question are not illegal immigrants. They were born in the U.S., but have family in Matamoros, so they may live there some of the time while attending school in Brownsville.
Many of these students are good students. One reason is they see the disparity in facilities and resources and are motivated to do well.
They are children of two countries, but they are American youths. They were born here and will go to college here.
Aside from all of that, the U.S. Supreme Courth ruled years ago that U.S. public schools must take in all students, period, if they live in the boundaries of the district.
That premise has never been challenged since the early 1980s when that ruling was made. You can write all of the upper cap opinions you want, guy, but it ain’t going to change that ruling.