Critics voice views
teaching aliens
THE BATTALION Page 11
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1977
r
Dn
United Press International
[AUSTIN, Tex. — Sharpest critics
( [proposals to provide tuition free
pooling for alien children living in
Jxas are the officials of border
pool districts who say their classes
ealready overcrowded and under
fed.
“If the government doesn’t stop
people from coming in we re
ing to be overrun,” said
townsville superintendent Raul
Bteros. “This is killing us.”
Bisteros said his school picks up
00 new alien students each year
ien though state law bars illegal
lens from free classes.
If courts strike down the law and
lie aliens may attend school tuition
ee, he said the influx of new stu-
ents would be impossible to
pidle.
“It will be unreal how many kids
ill come in,’’Bisteros said. “I’m
raing away three or four a day. If
e start educating them we ll have
1,000 more. "
Bisteros said pressure from the
nstant stream of legal immigrants
om Mexico has caused almost in-
rmountable space problems for
is school district.
Half our school district is porta-
(temporary buildings). We can t
wide the roofs. We don t have
money to build $20,000 class-
loms. I ve got teachers in hallways.
office is one of the two meeting
wins in this district. "
Problems are similar in most of
e 61 districts along the Mexican
irder where 60 percent of the
1,348 Mexican immigrants attend-
Texas schools were enrolled in
piuary.
Texas Education Agency statistics
idicate the vast majority of the
migrants are poor — 82.4 percent
"the youngsters surveyed qualified
free lunch programs.
Complicating the situation is the
the border areas are among the
wrest in the nation with little in-
ustry other than agriculture, and
unemployment.
The influx of the Mexican alien
lild places the greatest burden on
latpart of the state that is the most
poverished when it comes to abil-
to raise funds locally via the
roperty tax method,” says McAllen
hool superintendent, Rodney D.
they.
[im B. Hensley in a TEA spon-
ired study concluded, “Generally
tax base of border school dis-
icts is well below that of the rest of
lestate. Property owners in border
istricts would be taxed a greater
mount than others in the state if
amparable school services and
icilities for their children were
rovided.”
Hensley said border districts have
with the problem only
trough strained local tax efforts but <
ave reached the saturation point
iith the sharp increase in migration
f Mexicans to Texas in the past
years.
Bisteros said the average value of
liable property in Brownsville is
11,000 per student, compared to I
90,000 in Houston. j
Our local people have been very i
atient but they are beginning to j
sk why they are called on to edu- j
i these alien students at the ex- !
rase of their own children, said [
larence Shelton, Roma school
uperintendent.
They have never objected to
apporting their local schools for the
raefit of their local children, but
men they see their children being
rowded out of their schools and
heir taxes increasing each year they
legin to ask why,” Shelton said.
Unlike other schools where in
casing enrollments usually are ac-
ompanied by local economic
powth, the influx of alien students
irings increased costs with little, il
my, increase in property tax Values.
These students don’t actually
iringin any tax base,” said Del Rio
tliool superintendent O. B. Poole.
Poole said border schools try to
Dntrol the problem by policing new
itudent enrollments and checking to
aake sure they are eligible for free
ichooling as local residents.
About 20 residents of neighbor-
g Acuna pay $800-a-year tuition;
»attend Del Rio schools. Poole
iaid 12 percent of the students in
Del Rio schools were born in Mexi-
A TEA survey showed Mexico-
xim students accounted for 14 per
cent of the school enrollment in
Townsville, 31 percent in Hidalgo
Independent School District, 8 per-|
cent in El Paso, and 12 percent in
McAllen.
McAllen’s assistant superinten-
lent, Ricardo Chapa, estimates the
Mexican enrollment climbed
mother 2 to 3 percent in Sep-
Sember.
We don’t have a single classroom
vailable,” Chapa said. “We re
using our music rooms for class-
ooms and asking our music
eachers to move from classroom to
classroom.”
Chapa said McAllen schools will
be in a bind if courts rule illegal
aliens are entitled to the same free
education provided American citi
zens and legal immigrants.
“That’s going to be quite a hard
ship on us if we re forced to do
that,” Chapa said.
Border school districts are seeking
special relief from Congress and
are pushing for legislation to pro
vide annual federal grants of $1,000
to fftl 500-oer alien student.
OPEN MON.-FRI. 9:30-9:30
SATURDAY 9:00-9:30
Alien parents show child’s work
from American public schools
United Press International
AUSTIN—Rosa Martinez’ first
school papers are on display in
her parents’ living room.
On a table where other
families display magazines or
books, Armando and Estella
Martinez display their 5-year-old
daughter’s kindergarten work.
“I want her to learn English
and all the things I don’t know,”
her mother said.
Martinez, 30, a $135-a-week
car painter, and his wife and their
13-month-old daughter came to
Texas from Mexico on a 72-hour
crossing card in 1972.
They now are seeking visas
to become permanent U.S. resi
dents and fighting efforts to bar
Rosa from public school as an
illegal alien.
“There is work here,” Mrs.
Martinez said. “There is not
much food in Mexico.”
The Martinezes live in a small
white house at the rear of
another residence on a tree-
shaded street in a working class
area of South Austin.
The concrete floor is cracked
and curtains serve as doors be
tween the tiny living room and
adjoining bedrooms and kitchen.
Life, however, seems very
good to Mrs. Martinez.
Texas dams "safe’
United Press International
—HOUSTON- An incident like
the Toccoa Dam tragedy is unlikely
to occur in Texas, officials of the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and
the Texas Department of Water Re
sources, said Monday.
Of the 4,638 dams in Texas under
their jurisdiction, not one at this
time is in any immediate danger of
collapse, the officials said.
But the National Weather Service
said any time there is significant
rainfall, people living downstream
from earthen dams should be pre
pared to flee to high ground.
John Clarke, Water Rights Com
mission chief, said since 1969 the
agency has inspected all Texas dams
higher than 25 feet or containing
more than 50 acre feet of water.
Of the 62 dams found in need of
repair or alteration last year, all are
now either fixed or in the process of
repair, Clarke said. “We continually
find dams that need alteration but
right now there are none in immi
nent danger,” Clark said.
Art Denys, chief of engineering
for the Fort Worth corps district,
said the 27 dams built or operated
by the corps in Texas are inspected
regularly.
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