Fairfax County Public Schools -- Article on Demographic Changes

[Anonymous]

A previous poster asked why the immigrants do not move to the great open spaces of the United States, where the land is plentiful and the cost of living is cheaper (like Red Cloud, Nebraska?).

Why did you move to the Washington metro area instead of Garden City, Kansas? The same economics that bring so many highly-educated, post-graduate jobseekers to Washington, DC, also attracts immigrant workers -- namely a well-paid, robust job market, in an affluent area with good public schools.

These immigrants prepare food, care for children, clean clothes, tend to the landscaping, clean houses, build new homes and renovate old ones, repair cars, maintain commercial buildings -- basically support the lives of the many affluent in this area. I know several Latino families who moved to this region from Southern California because they felt that they had better job opportunities here.

[Anonymous]

Immigrants are ok , illegal immigrants and offspring are criminal scum

[Anonymous]

Also, the suggestion that immigrants should move to less-settled regions of the United States embodies an attitude of "out-of-sight", "out-of-mind". Latino immigrants have been part of the fabric of American life for the last century, and in increasingly greater numbers for at least the past 50 years.

Many cities and school districts in the border States of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, have been tackling the issue of how to educate and integrate the U.S.'s newest immigrants -- in numbers that sometimes make up entire schools -- for decades now.

I suppose that Washingtonians did not much care about the struggles and issues of the "provinces" until the post-9/11 economic boom started to attract immigrant workers to this region.

[Anonymous]

These immigrants prepare food, care for children, clean clothes, tend to the landscaping, clean houses, build new homes and renovate old ones, repair cars, maintain commercial buildings -- basically support the lives of the many affluent in this area. I know several Latino families who moved to this region from Southern California because they felt that they had better job opportunities here.

Do these jobs need a high school diploma, especially with children starting off high school completely unprepared? I grew up here and have family here. Otherwise we'd move.

[Anonymous]

It is almost comical how the pendulum with respect to working women has swung in my lifetime. We used to be so (unjustifiably) critical of women who worked outside of the home, and now we are so (again, unjustifiably) critical of women who work inside the home.

I am a working woman with children, but my mother and one of my sisters was/is not. I suppose that I run in a less affluent circle than many of the posters here because the stay-at-home mothers I know do not stay at the gym and shop all day -- but rather do some or all of the work that you and I hire a nanny, cleaning service, bus service, afterschool service, tutors, cleaners, and lawn service to do. And all of those people will be able to collect some social security benefits for doing their work.

I also know that in some cases the DH or DW's decision to stay at home, enables the working spouse to earn much more than they otherwise would have because they can work many more hours, and therefore that working spouse is able to contribute much more in taxes, including ss.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These immigrants prepare food, care for children, clean clothes, tend to the landscaping, clean houses, build new homes and renovate old ones, repair cars, maintain commercial buildings -- basically support the lives of the many affluent in this area. I know several Latino families who moved to this region from Southern California because they felt that they had better job opportunities here.

Do these jobs need a high school diploma, especially with children starting off high school completely unprepared? I grew up here and have family here. Otherwise we'd move.

No, the jobs that immigrant parents take do not necessarily require a college degree -- but these jobs are plentiful here and they pay well here, and that attracts the immigrant work force to the Washington metro area.

Immigrants, like you, also want their children to attend and learn at good public schools so that they can do better than their parents in life -- it is not right to tell immigrants that their children are not deserving of an education because they can only aspire to certain jobs that require no college degree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:who said there was a baby boom? The fertility rate continues to decline, and nearly all increases are from immigration. There are exceptions to this rule, but on average, the people having multiple children are immigrants, mostly because many of them are strict catholics.

Or Muslims, here legitimately (because you can't exactly walk across the ocean from the Middle East). The Muslim families in the schools around us have about an average 5 kids EACH.

Lots of people here who have overstayed their visas. You don't have to walk here to do that.

[Anonymous]

Immigrants, like you, also want their children to attend and learn at good public schools so that they can do better than their parents in life -- it is not right to tell immigrants that their children are not deserving of an education because they can only aspire to certain jobs that require no college degree.

No one is saying that. What they are saying is that it isn't right for these children to count as 2 students instead of 1 student and get extra resources. They are certainly deserving of an education, just not special treatment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Immigrants, like you, also want their children to attend and learn at good public schools so that they can do better than their parents in life -- it is not right to tell immigrants that their children are not deserving of an education because they can only aspire to certain jobs that require no college degree.

No one is saying that. What they are saying is that it isn't right for these children to count as 2 students instead of 1 student and get extra resources. They are certainly deserving of an education, just not special treatment.

How, exactly, are these students who are the children of immigrants counted as two students? Are AAP children or special education students similarly counted as two students because they receive special resources? I really do not know, so please explain. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Immigrants, like you, also want their children to attend and learn at good public schools so that they can do better than their parents in life -- it is not right to tell immigrants that their children are not deserving of an education because they can only aspire to certain jobs that require no college degree.

No one is saying that. What they are saying is that it isn't right for these children to count as 2 students instead of 1 student and get extra resources. They are certainly deserving of an education, just not special treatment.

Isn't bringing a child up to speed because their life circumstances have started them at a disadvantage just considered part and parcel of education's mission?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Immigrants, like you, also want their children to attend and learn at good public schools so that they can do better than their parents in life -- it is not right to tell immigrants that their children are not deserving of an education because they can only aspire to certain jobs that require no college degree.

No one is saying that. What they are saying is that it isn't right for these children to count as 2 students instead of 1 student and get extra resources. They are certainly deserving of an education, just not special treatment.

How, exactly, are these students who are the children of immigrants counted as two students? Are AAP children or special education students similarly counted as two students because they receive special resources? I really do not know, so please explain. Thank you.

I would like to know this, too, and I am an ESOL teacher. I know ESOL counts are figured differently for staffing, but as far as I know, they do not count as 2 people (I thought it was something like 1.2 or something like that). That said, we need smaller class sizes. I currently have a class of 17 students in ESOL 1. Some of them know a little bit of spoken English and some know absolutely nothing. I don't speak Spanish, but from what others tell me, their spoken and written Spanish is really elementary, too. Many of them have very little education in their home language. They are 16-20 years old, yet they don't know how to act in a school setting because where they came from it was a free for all in school. It is basically like teaching kindergarten or 1st grade in a 17 year old body. How many of these types of students do you think I should have in class so that they could learn and progress and hopefully graduate? We are doing the best we can, but it is nearly an impossible task when these kids come here with so little education at such a late age. This is not all ESOL , of course. We certainly have kids at other levels who are educated and move and progress, but there are certainly many, many students in FCPS who are like the ones I described above.

[Anonymous]

Page 197 in the Approved Budget for 2014 starts the discussion on the needs based staffing ratio as well as the appendix starting on page 359. Special Ed level 2 students are counted differently as are ESOL and FARM students. AAP students are not counted differently. There are proposals to tweak the ratios this year to close the budget shortfall, but I don't have the link right now to the school board documents. I saw it in a posting here recently though. Below are some recent postings on class size and the needs based staffing ratio. Class size can be very large in some schools and much smaller in others even when schools are not Title 1 which is another layer that limits the size of classes in certain schools regardless of whatever ratio FCPS uses. Other counties count all students the same an then allocate extra resources separately. FCPS allocates separate resources and counts these students differently.

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/340721.page#4257951

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/330304.page#4041813

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/337911.page

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/339166.page

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Immigrants are ok , illegal immigrants and offspring are criminal scum

+1,000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is almost comical how the pendulum with respect to working women has swung in my lifetime. We used to be so (unjustifiably) critical of women who worked outside of the home, and now we are so (again, unjustifiably) critical of women who work inside the home.

I am a working woman with children, but my mother and one of my sisters was/is not. I suppose that I run in a less affluent circle than many of the posters here because the stay-at-home mothers I know do not stay at the gym and shop all day -- but rather do some or all of the work that you and I hire a nanny, cleaning service, bus service, afterschool service, tutors, cleaners, and lawn service to do. And all of those people will be able to collect some social security benefits for doing their work.

I also know that in some cases the DH or DW's decision to stay at home, enables the working spouse to earn much more than they otherwise would have because they can work many more hours, and therefore that working spouse is able to contribute much more in taxes, including ss.

How do you collect social security for cleaning, landscaping your own house? SAHM families get no tax benefits from childcare either. No paycheck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These immigrants prepare food, care for children, clean clothes, tend to the landscaping, clean houses, build new homes and renovate old ones, repair cars, maintain commercial buildings -- basically support the lives of the many affluent in this area.

We take care of our own home and yard.
We raise our own kids.
We wash and take care of our own clothing.

We have our cars repaired at local small businesses owned by Americans.
Our house is lovely and old, and well-maintained. It wasn't built by cheap labor and it's going to be standing for ages after the McMansions fall.

We have no use for these criminals. Your attempted guilt trip has no effect on me.