Capistrano Unified School District Welcomes 200 "Newcomers"

California Ranks 50th in the Nation in Per Pupil Funding.

When there is not enough money... should state and local policymakers put the interests of illegal residents ahead of legal residents?

At the October 22, 2014 Capistrano Unified School District Board Meeting, District Staff informed Trustees that CUSD had received 200 “Newcomers” aka “unaccompanied minors”. Children from many different countries that speak little or no English with many that were not fluent or literate in their own native language. Staff presented the Board with an up-dated Local Control Accountability Plan that made increasing the number of English learners who achieve English fluency and decreasing the number of long-term English learners a top priority.

Source: Board Audio: http://cusd.capousd.org/cusdweb/boardaudio/10-22-14/10-22-14RegularBdMtg... at 1 hour 5 minutes. Of note: 1 hour 7 minutes and Newcomer Discussion at 1 hour 13 minutes 20 seconds. My comments to the Board can be heard at 1 hour 24 minutes.

The change to the District’s LCAP was made at the recommendation of the Orange County Department of Education without any in-put from parents or the public, as required by California’s New Local Control Funding Formula law.

Capistrano Unified is already one of the lowest funded Districts in the California (and therefore the United States) at $7,002 per student. The added financial burden that these students will place on the District’s already insufficient funding is substantial, and will result in less services for current students.

When there is not enough money... should state and local policymakers put the interests of illegal residents ahead of legal residents?

For a Parents Perspective on California’s new Local Control Funding Formula and CUSD funding see: http://disclosurecusd.blogspot.com/2014/11/re-research-brief-toward-grand-vision.html

Amended LCAP Plan presentation October 22, 2014 Board Meeting at page 5 http://capousd.ca.schoolloop.com/file/1229223560406/1218998864154/7348616572970870860.pdf

The Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration on California Taxpayers

Source: http://www.fairus.org/DocServer/research-pub/CaliforniaCostStudy_2014-v2.pdf

“Californians bear an enormous fiscal burden as a result of an illegal alien population estimated at almost 3 million residents. The annual expenditure of state and local tax dollars on services for that population is $25.3 billion. That total amounts to a yearly burden of about $2,370 for a household headed by a U.S. citizen.

Nearly half of those expenditures ($12.3 billion) result from the costs of K-12 education for the children of illegal aliens — both those illegally in the country and those born in the United States. Another major outlay ($2.1 billion) results from the need to provide supplemental English language instruction to Limited English Proficient students, many of whom are children of illegal aliens. Together, these educational costs are 57.1 percent of total expenditures.”

Supplemental English Instruction

The cost to California taxpayers for the K-12 education of the children of illegal aliens does not end with the regular operating expenses. Because most of those children are raised speaking a language other than English at home, they have difficulty learning in English in school. They are, therefore, put into supplemental English classes for Limited English Proficient students. Those classes are sometimes identified as English Language Learner classes or English as a Second Language classes.

Under the state’s current public school funding formula, the state provides “…a supplemental grant equal to 20 percent of the adjusted [local] base grant for targeted disadvantaged students. Targeted students are those classified as English learners…[among others].” The base grant is $7,643 per pupil. The supplement, therefore, amounts to $1,529 per pupil. Additional funding comes from local sources. On average, the local funding of public school expenditures accounts for about one third of the state funding. Applying the same share to ELL program funding adds an additional $494, for a total of $2,023 per pupil.

We include in the estimate, a declining enrollment in ELL instruction as the students have additional years of supplemental English instruction. We also provide for the fact that some students in ELL instruction will not be children of illegal aliens.

According to a 2009 news account, “Nearly 70% of all students ever placed in the English language learning program were born in the United States. And, “Almost 30% of those placed early on in such programs in L.A. Unified were still in them when they started high school….”

Supplemental public school expenditures on ELL instruction for the children of illegal aliens amounts to more than $2 billion per year.

Despite Being Placed with Sponsors, “Newcomers” are being classified as “Homeless” to avoid School Enrollment Documentation which will also allow them to receive benefits under the McKinney-Vento Act

Source: http://www2.ed.gov/policy/rights/guid/unaccompanied-children.pdf

Theses children are not “homeless”. They have been placed with a legal guardian or have a legal sponsor. Allowing children who haven’t had required health screenings or immunizations to be enrolled in our public schools puts everyone at risk. Couple that fact with the high percentage of South Orange County parents that refuse to vaccinate their children create a potential health risk to our entire community

To meet the educational needs of the 200 Newcomers CUSD has entered into hundreds of contracts for private tutoring services from all over the United States.

See the November 12, 2014 Board Meeting Agenda Starting at Page 209


States across the nation are beginning to express concern about the “unfunded federal mandate” resulting from the resettled children, and are looking to the federal government to foot the bill for any resulting, local-tax-funded costs within the public school system or other public services. Capistrano Unified should seek financial relief as well.

See: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/loudoun-will-seek-federal-reimbursement-for-cost-of-undocumented-children/2014/10/16/67e467f4-5558-11e4-892e-602188e70e9c_story.html