Aging neighborhoods, the economy and the state's new immigration law have resulted in fewer kids sitting in most East Valley classrooms.
Mesa Unified School District saw the biggest loss of students - 2,400. The district is the largest in the state, with more than 64,000 students. School leadership believes about two-thirds of the loss is because of SB 1070, the state's new illegal immigration law. Much of the rest may be attributed to the failing economy as families lost their homes or moved elsewhere to find jobs, district officials say.
Much of the new immigration law has been put on hold by the courts, but advocates for immigrants say it spread enough fear among the Hispanic community that some families packed up and moved from the state.
The Gilbert Unified School District saw a slight decline - less than 1 percent - from last year. As of Sept. 3, the district had 38,679 students. Last year at that time it had 38,940.
Tempe Union High School District and Chandler Unified School District both saw increases. Tempe Union added more than 400 students while Chandler enrollment exceeded projections, district spokesman Terry Locke said.
Through the 10th day of school, the Chandler district saw an increase of 911 students from the same time last year. The district had expected to see an additional 750 students.
Like the past few years, the biggest class is kindergarten. There are 3,177 students in the district's kindergarten classes. The second largest class is first grade, with 3,125 students.
"This is very healthy because many of those students will continue to attend Chandler schools for 12 or 13 years," Locke said.
The district did see a decline in its northern schools, while there was growth in the southern parts of the district, including those areas that sit in Gilbert. Chandler district's northern-most schools have seen a gradual decline the last five years.
"This is due to a variety of factors, including the natural aging of a community, the housing market, economy, migration of families to south Chandler, south Gilbert and beyond and certainly immigration. It is difficult to estimate the impact of Senate Bill 1070 because the trend is similar to what we have been experiencing," Locke said.
He pointed to Galveston Elementary School, which has the highest Hispanic population in the district. Enrollment is down 28 students, from 812 to 784, this year. In 2008 and 2009, Galveston enrollment dropped 35 students and 55 students respectively.
The Tempe Union schools continue to target students through marketing efforts, said spokeswoman Linda Littell.
"We've done a lot of recruiting. Our schools are really focusing in on the uniqueness and programs of each one of the schools," Littell said, noting that 1,808 students attend Tempe high schools from out of the district. "Obviously, we don't expect that trend to last forever. We're certainly grateful for it and will continue those efforts."
The Tempe Elementary School District is also marketing its programs. The result is more students from out of the district's boundaries - 1,800 students this year - though the district's overall enrollment has seen a decrease, said spokeswoman Monica Allread.
In 2009, there were 12,478 students in Tempe elementary schools on the 19th day of class. This year, there were 11,956, a decline of 522 students.
"Our population is aging out of elementary school age," Allread said.
forkedlift1 posted at 7:43 pm on Mon, Sep 20, 2010.
When people who know better persist in repetitiously spouting falsehoods, spiced with hyperbole and innuendo, which either have been refuted by facts or cannot be supported by those who continually rev the engines of fear, the question becomes "why."
Could be a variety of reasons depending on who's doing the spouting, but from what we're seeing now unfolding in the sheriff's office, I suppose one reason could be to distract the general public from being informed about deep seated wrongdoing or criminal acts occurring within a public agency.
coyote posted at 7:08 am on Mon, Sep 20, 2010.
It would be nice if people did their research. Crime rates have been doing down since 2006. They have been decreasing long before SB1070.
forkedlift1 posted at 2:40 am on Mon, Sep 20, 2010.
Am surprised "America First" is still trying to spread the hate propaganda with false information. Public education here is paid for by our property taxes which "illegals" do pay directly or indirectly unless they are are living on the streets which is unlikely. Like the rest of us, they also pay sales taxes, gas taxes, "sin" taxes if applicable (cigarettes & alcohol) as do their employers. They are not eligible for public benefits like AHCSS and a number of other public welfare assistance programs available to other low income Arizona residents. SB 1070's stated intent of "attrition through enforcement" flies in the face of federal immigration policy and laws, just as many other sections of that dumb bill did, those sections that were rightfully enjoined by the federal court.
America First posted at 9:49 pm on Sun, Sep 19, 2010.
Attrition by enforcement. In fact everyone of those "illegal" students cost taxpayers $9500. Do the math. Also since Employer Sanctions was passed in 2007 the state has saved $350 million in declining ennrollment in Arizona schools.
The cost to educate, medicate and incarcerate illegal aliens in Arizona annually is $2.7 Billion. That does not count the victims of crime, county jail time, investigative cost, prosecution cost or the job loss to Americans. Enough is enough. Illegal is not a race, it is a crime.
A new FBI fact sheet just came out showing that Arizona's violent crime rate has dropped 14% while the rest of the nation dropped 5.4%. A direct result in our Attrition by Enforcement effort in this state. As our illegal alien population aslo has dropped by about 3 times the national average. Bookings in the Maricopa County Jail for violent crime by this demographic is about 2.5% times that of any other demographic.
Could there be a correlation between this USA Today article detailing an exodus of illegal aliens from Arizona just weeks before SB 1070 went into effect?
Nationally, violent crime dropped by just 5.3 percent as compared to Arizona‘s 14 percent.
As a border state that is the major portal for illegal aliens, Arizona has long had to deal with a spiraling crime rate. Phoenix has the dubious distinction of being the kidnapping capital of America, with more incidents than any other city in the world outside of Mexico City and over 370 cases last year alone, according to ABC News.
Although advocates for continued illegal immigration illogically contend the illegal population is less likely to commit crimes than U.S. citizens, the facts speak for themselves. After gaining illegal entry the first act when reaching the U.S. is criminal, as they purchase stolen or counterfeit documents such as driver’s licenses, birth certificates and social security numbers in order to facilitate their lives in American cities.
ElPeneDeCaballo posted at 7:38 am on Sat, Sep 18, 2010.
Welllll, I guess the Liberals won't like the fact that SB 1070 did the job!