Foxnews.com
Betty Maldanado's neighborhood school is Lowell Elementary in Orange County, Calif. She attended that school, as did her mother, brothers and sisters. But her daughter Alena will not, because most students who attend the school now are children of Mexican immigrants who don't speak English. So she's sending Alena to private school.
"It makes it difficult, because you have the kids that aren't speaking English regularly at home, aren't speaking regularly even with their friends," Maldanado said. "They only speak Spanish which makes it very difficult for them to keep up in the classroom setting."
By law, citizens and immigrants — legal or not — can be educated in U.S. public schools.
One group of angry parents showed a video showing dozens of Mexican kids coming over the border to wait for a San Diego school bus. Another video shows more students from another district taking the trolley back to the Mexican border after school. Many say the influx has led to overcrowded classrooms, drained school budgets and a slowed learning process.
Posted by Suzanne at March 22, 2005