Local repercussions may follow review of youths crossing border

Efforts to crack down on Mexican children improperly enrolled in Del Rio public schools could have an effect on the Rio Grande Valley.

Officials with the San Felipe Del Rio Consolidated Independent School District went to the bridge coming from Ciudad Acuña, Mexico. They gave children crossing into Del Rio letters stating that if they were enrolled in Del Rio schools they had to prove they lived within the district or face immediate expulsion.

Lawyers with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund are reviewing the district’s actions and questioning the legality.

TRLA attorney Courtney Schusheim last week told the Del Rio News-Herald that the district’s policy doesn’t follow Texas Education Agency policy or state law.

At issue is the district’s requirement that students provide two forms of documentation proving that they live within the district, including a utility bill with a local address, in the name of the students’ parent or legal guardian.

Schusheim said state law doesn’t require that students live with their parents or guardians. Indeed, some students, such as those in foster care, exchange students, or those whose parents are ill or absent (military personnel deployed to war zones, for example), wouldn’t meet the requirement. Also, renters whose utilities are covered in their lease, or families who occupy homes owned by someone else — grandparents, for example — might be unable to provide the required utility bill.

District officials said they prepared the letters after an informal count on the bridge found that more than 500 school-age children crossed from Mexico into Del Rio on one school day. After allowing for visitors, dropouts and private school students, the officials estimated nearly 200 of the children were attending Del Rio public schools.
The district’s total enrollment is a little more than 10,000 students.

People contend that Mexican students steal educational services from taxpayers, since they don’t live within the taxing district. The argument is understandable, even though the logic is faulty. Public schools are largely funded through property taxes. Many property owners don’t have children in school, while many families with schoolchildren rent or receive government assistance, and thus don’t pay the taxes that fund their children’s education — just like their Mexican counterparts.

Regardless, the additional students cost school districts greatly, since they create a demand for more teachers and class materials, and force the districts to build new schools sooner than they would otherwise.

Border school districts, including those in the Valley, likely have some students crossing from Mexico as well. Out-of-district students can enroll, if they pay tuition. Many Mexican families get around the requirement by listing false addresses, or using addresses of friends or relatives who live within the district.

As a result, local districts also have methods to verify residency; they can be similar to those in Del Rio. At least one of the Valley’s largest public school districts also requires utility bills in the guardians’ names, which the TRLA attorney says isn’t legal.

We could well see a lawsuit over the matter in the near future.

Local school officials would do well, therefore, to monitor the situation in Del Rio, review their own residency policies, and be prepared to adjust them if a state or judicial review finds any of them improper or
discriminatory.