Anchorage school board candidate: Immigration is behind school problems
Immigration to Anchorage, Alaska, is “causing problems” for schools there, a candidate for school board says.
In a wide-ranging interview with Alaska Public Media, Don Smith, 75, repeatedly said immigrants--and in one case special needs students--were diverting the district’s resources away from other children. Smith, a Republican, is running to unseat incumbent Kameron Perez-Verdia in Tuesday’s Anchorage school board election. Smith has served on the commission that drafted the city’s charter, in the state house and in a number of other positions in Alaska government over the years.
.......
Smith’s comments about immigrants and refugees came in response to a question from Alaska Public Media’s Daysha Eaton. Graduation rates have been rising and dropout rates were falling. What was behind that good news and is it sustainable, she asked. To which Smith replied:
There’s lots of problems that have been caused by organizations like the State Department that have somehow convinced Alaskans or Anchorage residents to accept two families a month from Africa and Indonesia to come in here totally unable to speak English, and give us the responsibility to try to educate these kids in the school system.
When I was in Anchorage High School, it was about 98 percent white students, and the balance were probably Native and one or two black students. Today we’re 48 percent white, 52 percent other. And that clearly is causing problems. I think our numbers are dropping because we’re importing all these people that aren’t up to the standards that we had set for the school. Consequently, it’s drawn us downward not upward.
http://m.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/03/28/anchorage-school-board-candidate-immigration-is-behind-school-problems/
