From Amarillo, TX to New York State one of the first places a refugee overload becomes evident is in the social and economic impact on school systems.
Yesterday we told you about how the school system in Amarillo has become the place where poverty at home is being addressed (at a cost to taxpayers and to the student body).
Thanks to reader ‘Joanne’ here is another story—this one from New York. Wyoming take note!
From Buffalo Rising (emphasis is mine):
NYS Assemblyman Sean Ryan, 149th Assembly District [Buffalo—ed], recently visited Lafayette High School to announce his push to have an increase in state education funding, to be set aside for schools with high refugee populations.
The Assembly budget proposal, passed Wednesday, March 12, increased aid to schools by $1.1 billion for the NYS fiscal year of 2014 -2015. This is the largest increase in 6 years and $402 million more than the executive budget proposed for a total of $22.2 billion in state aid.
“Schools with high refugee populations need extra help because they are classified as failing schools because of low graduation rates. That is in direct reflection of their high refugee and English as Second Language (ESL) populations,” said Cody Meyers, Ryan’s communication director.
Ryan’s plan would give a higher percentage of funding based on a formula to schools with a more than 50% increase of ESL students within the past 5 years.
Holy cow!
Nearly 70% of students at Lafayette High School are ESL students, and 40% of those students are classified as Students with Interrupted Formal Education, who are often refugees who had little formal education before doing to the United States.
Lafayette is in the process of implementing an English language immersion programs for these students and Ryan hopes the final state budget will make funding for that type of program a “top priority.”
“At Lafayette upwards of 40 languages are spoken…the immersion program would make English a more hands on language for these students, working with family life and exposing kids to English at all times,” said Meyers.
We have written a lot about Buffalo over the years. Type ‘Buffalo’ into our search function and see what I mean! But, here is one post you must see—as Muslim population of Buffalo area increases, Jewish and Christian population declines.