🚀 go-pugleaf

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

Just more of the TYPICAL, CONTINUAL, {{CLINTON/GORE}} LIES!

Tell your children who CHEATED THEM out of a worthwhile education.

- ----
http://www.cis.org/articles/1999/sac9-30-99.html

School Overcrowding
The Clinton administration says baby boomers are responsible.
Two who know say they are not.

by Steven Camarota

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, September 30, 1999

As school bells ring across the country this fall, we are hearing a lot
about overcrowded schools and severely strained public education
budgets. A new report from the Department of Education indicates the
reason why - a dramatic increase in the school-age population.

President Clinton is using the report to call for more federal funding
of education. Unfortunately, the report, "The Baby Boom Echo: No End in
Sight," as well as most of the media coverage of the issue, misses the
point: the growth in the school-age population is a direct consequence
of recent immigration, not the result of baby boomers' kids entering
school.

While the report barely mentions immigration, there is really no debate
among demographers who study the issue. Official Census Bureau
statistics, estimates done by the National Academy of Sciences, as well
as other research show that recent immigration is reason for the growth
in the school-age population.

The facts are actually quite straightforward. In 1998 there were 52
million school-age children (5 to 17), roughly 8 million of whom were
either immigrants themselves or the child of an immigrant mother who had
arrived since 1965, when the current immigration wave began. We know
this because the Current Population Survey, a kind of mini-census taken
each month by the Census Bureau, asks respondents if they are
immigrants, when they arrived, and if their parents were immigrants.
With this data, it is a very simple matter to estimate the impact of
recent immigration on public schools.

The Department of Education's report shows that the number of students
in public school has grown by about 7 million since the early 1980s.
Therefore, recent immigrants and their children account for all the
increase in the number of students in school.

Of course, immigration does not explain rising enrollment in every
single school district in the country. But, the national increase in the
number of children in school is, without question, a direct consequence
of recent immigration.

Perhaps the Clinton administration and the Department of Education are
unaware of these simple demographic facts. It seems much more likely,
however, that they point to the "baby-boom echo" and not the real cause
because they are reluctant to call attention to immigration's impact.

The administration may fear that the American people would be unwilling
to spend significantly more money on education if they knew that recent
immigration was the reason. The fact is, these children are here to stay
and it is clearly in the long-term interest of our country to educate
them. But concern over public reaction does not justify issuing a
misleading report about the causes of overcrowding in public schools.

This country needs a rational debate about how to improve public
education. It also needs a rational debate about the wisdom of allowing
800,000 to 900,000 legal immigrants and several hundred thousand illegal
aliens into the country each year. This surely has significant
implications for public schools, especially in many urban districts that
are already straining to meet the needs of the students in their care.

But, no matter how one feels about education or immigration, the public
good is not well served by the kind of information coming out of the
Department of Education.

Conclusion: CLINTON and GORE are {{{{ LIARS! }}}}
- ----

{Publius}


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: 6.05 Professional

iQEVAwUBOcbeAxNFMNPCjv/zAQGpSQf9FnuVR8hnsASua8CwkyiFFLZca5tVo3Ks
WqraVkGPUc/WAxPErS9cByONYRClM3xPuNRKiCXJu4D3iksnvBxRbFT5YDaxDNO6
kRlD3BDW0VMFV7JAdgPGBiVDtDbYhLU5lwRhSVB2SBI5+zlw4Xnwmlb1/lEqZyoH
PVZ16ivfrGwHsFDHxOQnhzs1BkGmpGWsJZQW60UED/w6qQLheqgid8AJeuvN1cNk
JW8NQGtaiM7vYoXr/fCy1+xuRQ5uUWPa7whZQA0le9ymF0bGqiKzJf1dVsgRu5Td
6GjxwxlHIJ42ZpXKR6ghyBIIiyVsXod6u6M/AgTPrkzYt7PXlO3zzw==
=7PT2
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----