dc0de wrote:
4. The government education system in this country is strained to the breaking point. If you feel that it needs more, You pay it... the 30% taxes I'm paying are more than the average US wage earner makes in a year. My children don't have paper, pencils, tape, or other "standard" supplies in school... they have to be supplied by the parents... This is outrageous... but of course, I'm sure you'll tell me that school supplies aren't the job of the schools... (they were when I went...And they are in some states, where legislation WAS passed to solve these problems years ago... such as Utah)

Oh honey.

I'm just sad that you think that immigrants caused this sorry education situation. I do feel very badly for your children, and all of the children that are getting a sub-par education because of the funding problems the U.S. has.

To explain: Most, (nearly every state's) school systems are funded in the following way. (Simplified for clarity) Federal funding provides a small amount of money per student, and property taxes from the school district pay the rest. The O.C? Fairfax County, VA? Awesome property and awesome property taxes. Hence, pretty good schools. Ben Hill county, GA? Very bad property and very bad property taxes, hence, very bad schools. (And yet, very little illegal immigration.)

When the property ain't that great, the taxes aren't very much. This organization of the system leads to a very poor and inegalitarian form of schooling. Many states have ongoing lawsuits regarding this very same question. (Please see http://www.casfg.org/ for GA's version.)

Oh yeah, and consecutive budget cuts along with punitive testing systems (NCLB) don't help either.

Alls I'm saying- bLaming a whole country's education system on a small portion of the population just doesn't make that much sense to me. All children deserve an education- its our job as adults to make that work for them. And please remember that many of these 'illegal' children did not choose to come here on their own.

However, thank you for sharing your story and I think its great that your relatives were able to come to this country and make a better life for themselves and their family.

RE: How can Illegal Immigration help our Homeless situation?