May 26, 2005

Tucson: free educations for all!

Tucson's a nice little city, but it has its problems. Two of those problems appear to be Pima County Schools Superintendent Linda Arzoumanian and, in the same county, Ajo Unified School District Superintendent Robert Dooley.

From this:

The state's top school official said Wednesday that students who live in Mexico regularly attend public schools in Ajo at the expense of Arizona taxpayers and that Pima County's school superintendent has refused his request to investigate the matter.

That refusal could result in a challenge of future per-pupil funding requests, said state schools superintendent Tom Horne

Horne said the allegations first raised a year ago in news reports were confirmed by a private investigator he sent to the border. The investigator videotaped students walking across the Lukeville border and boarding a nearby school bus...

...Horne said Pima County Schools Superintendent Linda Arzoumanian declined to investigate further, and Ajo Unified School District Superintendent Robert Dooley has yet to respond.

Should Arzoumanian or Dooley fail to take action, Horne said he may challenge schools' requests for per-pupil funding, an annual allotment which is currently set at $5,000 per student...

[Arzoumanian] said discriminating against students based on citizenship, race or national origin is unconstitutional - and because address checks aren't common practice - she hesitates to focus on border-area students of apparent Mexican heritage.

"It's not within my right to do an investigation," she said.

If, as in the Ajo schools, students provide the rent and utility receipts, or guardianship documents that they need to prove they live in the district, then they are eligible to attend public schools.

"I'm not sure that any (students from Mexico ) are attending. … There's no way to know," she said...

Other than the videotape and the investigation, of course.

Previously: "Southwestern schools root out illegal pupils"

Posted to Immigration2005a at May 26, 2005 04:45 PM

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