Planting the seeds of educational success

Monday, February 24, 2003, 12:00 a.m. Pacific
From: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/134639987_riley24.html

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Planting the seeds of educational success

OLYMPIA — A House vote on a bill to make undocumented students eligible to pay in-state tuition came down to the difference it could make to individuals — give them an orchard ladder or give them a chance to climb the corporate ladder.

And that means a lot to more than 100 Latino students attending the Latino/a Educational Achievement Project Conference in Olympia Friday. They were students from around Washington state — some with legal residency papers, some without — who crowded into a hearing room to watch on closed-circuit TV as House members debated House Bill 1079.

I was as happy as they were when the bill prevailed on a 75-20 vote. Our state's major agriculture industry relies on the sweat of workers who enter the country without legal authority, and our state's constitution requires schools to provide education to all children residing in our borders. It makes no sense, then, that the children of undocumented workers who learn English and excel in school face a huge financial barrier to go to college.

These children are not at fault for their parents' decisions, but they are here to stay. Yet, their futures are all but foreclosed by the financial hurdle. Out-of-state tuition at the University of Washington costs $5,124 per quarter — three times the more-manageable resident tuition of $1,557.

"Carlos" arrived in a Yakima elementary school when he was just 7 and knew not a word of English. Now a senior, he speaks better English than Spanish and maintains a 3.44 grade-point-average, and is quick to add that he's enrolled in an international baccalaureate program.

For him, Friday's vote might mean a chance to become a health-sciences researcher so he can find a solution to the chronic ailment that keeps his father from working.

"Oh, man, this means the world to me," said the lanky boy with gelled hair who likes to play pickup basketball at the YMCA. "My mom is an agriculture worker, so money will always be an issue."

Watching the vote was the best of civics lessons for these kids, many of whom came to Washington as children with their parents to harvest crops or work in food processing plants, industries that rely heavily on workers who don't have legal permission to be in the United States. Last year, some of the students lobbied lawmakers — unsuccessfully — about the bill when they attended the LEAP conference.

"Sí se puede. Sí se puede. Sí se puede," the group chanted after a man urged them to thank Ricardo Sanchez, a LEAP founder.

"Yes, you can do it," Sanchez said. "But your work is not done," Sanchez reminded them. The bill, which was also passed by the Senate Higher Education Committee, must pass the full Senate and get the governor's signature.

Two days earlier, Sanchez swirled his coffee, remembering his years working for the Superintendent of Public Instruction and what infected him with a passion to improve the educational opportunities for the state's Latino children. "I worked on the superintendent's speeches and I looked at the test scores. We (Latinos) were always last or next to last."

And that challenge has only grown in recent years. In 1985, about 14,000 Washington school students were limited English speakers — about 40 percent spoke Spanish. In 2001, about 62 percent of the 70,400 limited-English students spoke Spanish as their first language.

The challenge is most dramatic in the state's agricultural areas where Mexican migrants came to harvest crops and settled — and it is most felt by the school districts, which are under pressure to raise test scores, including scores for those who aren't proficient English speakers.

Bridgeport School District Superintendent Gene Schmidt is undeterred. About 86 percent of the 700 students in his North Central Washington district are Hispanic, about half of those undocumented.

The district has attracted about $3 million in grant money in the past three years — a $1 million-a-year average that outpaces the district's annual maintenance-and-operations levy by tenfold. Half the $90,000 levy pays the salary of two all-day kindergarten teachers to help kids get a good start in reading. Test scores that started out in the basement have risen impressively over the past three years. Fourth-grade reading scores have grown from 30 percent to 40 percent; writing, from 16 to 54 percent; and math 4 to 27 percent.

Educators are working hard to help all children achieve, and they see the potential in these undocumented students. I hope the Senate will see it too.

On Friday, victory belonged to these students and their advocates. After the vote, the bill's sponsor, Democratic Rep. Phyllis Gutierrez Kenney of Seattle, and the Senate version's sponsor, Republican Sen. Don Carlson of Vancouver, joined the kids to plot strategy for their afternoon meetings with lawmakers. Speaker of the House Frank Chopp, who moved up the vote to coincide with the LEAP conference, came too, and even had tears in his eyes. So did Pasco School District Superintendent Saundra Hill, whose district has about 67 percent Hispanic students.

So did I.

Kate Riley's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. Her e-mail address is kriley@seattletimes.com