There's no May 1 Heffalump, either

But there is a series of immigration-related protests taking place nationwide, as some advocates have called for immigrants to boycott work and school to participate in protests and demonstrate their economic significance to the country. The "boycott" isn't universally supported within the movement. Schools and a number of pro-immigrant leaders have urged students to attend classes rather than participating in protests, and many districts have put parents and students on notice that those who skip school to attend the rallies will be disciplined. Nevertheless a reported quarter of middle and high school students in the predominantly Hispanic Los Angeles Unifed School District are absent today.

I'm torn about this issue. On the one hand, education is key to the opportunity that immigrants come the this country to pursue, so their children should be attending school today to help them take advantage of that opportunity. On the other hand, what could be a more American lesson for children to learn than how, through grassroots organizing, a large group of people with little individual power can make those in power listen to them? Of course, the corrolary to this lesson is that true civic disobedience means accepting the consequences of one's actions, so students who do violate compulsory attendance laws and school policies to participate in protests deserve to be punished.

But there's something else that troubled me, too. We know that many of the schools that enroll large numbers of immigrants or their kids are not succeeding. There is a large achievement gap between white and Hispanic students; drop-out rates for Hispanic students--especially males--are abysmal; and overall we're not doing a great job educating English language learners. And organized, empowered parents and communities are critical to addressing these problems. Wouldn't it be cool if these protests generate longer-term political organizing that gives parents a voice and the skills to advocate for their kids? Then we might start to see more of this kind of thing happening. I'm not holding my breathe, though.

In Related News:

Alexander Russo notes that, in contrast to past waves of anti-immigration sentiment, this time around there's not as much talk about the cost of educating illegal immigrant students.

Of course, that might be partly because, as Kevin Carey points out in the latest Charts You Can Trust, undocumented immigrants are just a teensy percentage of children in our public schools. Kevin's got lots of other interesting factoids on immigrants in public education, so be sure to check out his timely piece.