I thought this was in interesting article. Our schools are right to be concerned that students from neighboring states are illegally taking advantage of Hooier taxpayers by illegally attending our schools.
At the 9/16 Immigration Study Committee hearing, Lauren Harvey, Asst. Dir. of the Office of English Language Learning and Migrant Education, IDOE, testified that it costs $11,400 to educate one pupil for one year.
If all 263 students mentioned in this article turn out to be residents of other states, they are costing Hoosier taxpayers $2,990,200.
Funny that we can enforce the law against citizens but not illegal alien children. Imagine how much more we are spending when you add in illegals.
http://nwi.com/articles/2008/09/21/news ... 04f389.txt Residency issues under investigation BY JEFF BURTON
Jeff.Burton@nwitimes.com219.762.1397, ext.2225 | Sunday, September 21, 2008 | No comments posted.
PORTAGE | The school year has just begun, but it could be coming to an end for some students.
Lynette Dean, attendance officer for the Portage Township Schools, told School Board members
263 students are currently flagged as having possible residency issues, with seven investigations currently under way.
The school district has been cracking down in recent years on students whose parents claim residency in the district, but live beyond its boundaries. A new mechanism in place this school year will send letters to those parents 70 days after the start of school demanding certain forms of residency-proving identification be presented to school officials within 10 business days. If parents fail to provide the information, the school reserves the right to begin the expulsion process.
Dean said the residency investigations can take a bit of time.
"Sometimes I'm able to do them in a day, sometimes it takes a couple weeks," she said.
Some families have already left the district after a pilot program sent similar letters last year.
"One of those families immediately transferred to Illinois, which is where they came from," Dean said. "It's hard to believe with the cost of gas someone would drive back and forth, but that's what they were doing."
The Portage Township Schools have 744 new students this year, aside from kindergartners, and 111 students moved within the district to different schools, complicating matters.
In terms of enrollment, numbers in the elementary schools are somewhat stagnant, while the middle schools and high school have seen a slight upswing. Assistant Superintendent E. Ric Frataccia said preliminary counts have middle school enrollment up 22 students and high school enrollment up 62 students, but neither of those include students with mild or moderate learning disabilities.
Regardless, the numbers are below projections made by a 2005 demographics study. Space at some schools is limited, while the upswing at the high school raises little concern.
"The high school has so much space that it's not going to be an issue," Frataccia said.
Superintendent Mike Berta said some class sizes are a bit excessive, namely two fifth-grade classes with about 34 students at South Haven's Paul Saylor Elementary School. Berta said the school corporation is in the process of hiring another teacher for the building and evening out students into three classes