Academic scores and graduation rates for Hispanic students in Maryland have been declining for two decades. So why are Montgomery County Public Schools officials granting credit to students who attend Monday’s anti-immigration reform march?
Indeed, MCPS stood out as the only local school system to give such credit. The spectacle of thousands of protesters demanding that Congress ignore past and future violations of U.S. laws no doubt made a big impression on the youngsters. But the lessons were not ones an American public school system should be teaching, especially in a state where the percentage of Hispanics who graduate from high school has been steadily dropping — even while the national numbers have increased, according to the latest available U.S. census data.
Del. Ana Sol Gutierrez, D-Montgomery, attributes a dramatic 10-point drop in Hispanic graduation rates between 1980 and 2000 to the influx of immigrants from Central America, many of whom have low levels of literacy even in their own languages. The percentage of Hispanics graduating from college in Maryland likewise dropped from 25 percent in 1980 to 21 percent in 2000. “We have to turn around the way we are providing education,” Gutierrez said.
Here’s a good place to start: Instead of getting credit for attending demonstrations threatening Congress, Montgomery students should be hitting the books. They should also be taught that other countries do not permit the kind of unrestricted mass migration that Monday’s demonstrators want the United States to accept. American students in Montgomery and neighboring Prince George’s County, now home to 66 percent of the state’s immigrant Hispanic population, could not walk over the Mexican border — or the borders of any of the protesters’ home countries — and make any demands whatsoever.
There is another element of concern here, and that is whether Maryland guidelines concerning such credits are themselves an encouragement to break federal tax laws.
MCPS spokesman Brian Edwards told The Examiner that state graduation guidelines require students to accumulate 60 hours of community service. “We do not allow kids to skip class. They were on spring break,” he pointed out. The guidelines also allow advocacy, but the advocacy group must be a “legal, 501(c)3 nonprofit, secular organization” that has been first vetted by the Montgomery County Volunteer Center.
But according to the IRS, such organizations are not allowed to “attempt to influence legislation (commonly known as lobbying).” And lobbying en masse to influence the Senate on the pending immigration bill is precisely what CASA de Maryland, the approved Silver Spring group allowed to supervise MCPS students, was doing on the Mall.
One local resident likened attending Monday’s rally to “helping out at the Memorial Day parade.” Hardly. Which is why Superintendent Jerry Weast’s office was flooded with hundreds of angry phone calls.
Originally known as Central American Solidarity and Assistance, Casa de Maryland operates four tax-supported day labor centers in Montgomery. “We never ask for documentation,” Executive Director Gustavo Torres told The New York Times. Really? According to grass-roots.org, the group requires illegal immigrants to carry a CASA-generated photo ID, and even registers employers who want to hire them in defiance of federal law, but the group refuses to share this information with law enforcement officials.
Memorial Day is dedicated to the memory of Americans who died fighting for this country, not those who fight to circumvent its laws.
