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The Immigrant Voting Project |
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NO STUDENT LEFT BEHIND: GIVING PARENTS A VOICE IN THEIR CHILDREN'S EDUCATION Proposition F, a November 2004 ballot measure, is supported by Parents United for Education, a broad coalition of citizens, immigrants, community groups, labor, churches, elected officials and many others. Introduced by Board of Supervisors President Matt Gonzalez, the measure will extend the right to vote in school board elections to all parents with children in San Francisco public schools, regardless of citizenship. The initiative will empower the parents of one-third of our children in San Francisco public schools to have a saying as how their children are educated. It has received a wide range of endorsements. Why Support
Proposition F No student
should be left behind. One of out of three children in the San
Francisco Unified School District has an immigrant parent. Many of these
students are citizens, whose needs are left behind because their parents
lack a voice in their children's education. . When any parent becomes more involved, all children benefit. Educational studies confirm the strong correlation between parental participation and improvements in local schools. As an example, immigrant parents in New York have played important roles in decisions to upgrade facilities, reduce class size, and implement innovative after-school programs. Immigrant voting has a long history. For the first 150 years of our nation's history -- from 1776 until 1926, 22 states and territories allowed immigrants to vote and even hold office. Our founding fathers encouraged this practice based on the principle that allowing newcomers to vote encouraged them to build a stake and invest in local communities. Immigrant voting is currently practiced in other cities and countries. Jurisdictions in Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts and New York have passed laws allowing immigrants to vote. Immigrant voting has been successfully implemented without difficulty. 23 countries currently allow some form of immigrant voting. Immigrants seeking citizenship today face enormous bureaucratic challenges. Unlike the past, the current immigration system does not work, as even President Bush has said. Due to government red tape and lengthy INS backlogs, immigrants must wait an average of 10 years to become citizens. After September 11th, waiting times for common immigration petitions have doubled. Immigrant voting is legal. The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly stated that citizenship is not required to vote. . The California State Constitution protects the right of citizens to vote, but does not exclude immigrants from voting. The California State Constitution's "home rule" provisions permit charter cities to pass local laws in areas of local concern (such as local elections) that do not mirror state law. This modest experiment in democracy encourages citizenship. Immigrant parents who experience voting in the context of school board elections will be inspired to obtain citizenship to take part in other elections, such as state and federal elections. The narrow initiative contains a sunset clause that will cause immigrant parent voting to end or be adjusted after the experience of two school board elections.
May 18, 2004 Q: What is Supervisor Gonzalez's proposal to change the way school board members are elected? A: On May 18th, Supervisor Matt Gonzalez will introduce a proposed ballot measure that will allow immigrant parents over the age of 18 with at least one child enrolled in the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) to vote in school board elections. If adopted, this measure will take effect during the 2006 election and will remain in force for four years. At the end of the four years, the election of the school board will automatically revert back to the current system unless the Board of Supervisors affirmatively votes to allow immigrant parents to continue to participate in school board elections. Q: What are the benefits of allowing immigrant parents to vote in school board elections? A: There are many benefits to this proposal. A significant portion of SFUSD's students come from immigrant households that currently cannot fully voice their concerns to the school district because they are not allowed to vote for board members. This proposal will remove this barrier and encourage greater parental participation, which studies have consistently shown is required for good schools. Allowing all parents to vote in school board elections will increase accountability and the responsiveness of the school district so that all parents will have an equal voice in addressing their children's educational needs. The proposal will also help integrate immigrant parents into our democratic culture, providing an entry point for greater civic participation. Q: If approved, would San Francisco be the first government in the U.S. to allow immigrant parents to vote in a local election? A: NO. Over a 150-year period prior to 1926, immigrants could vote in 22 states and U.S. territories. The anti-immigrant backlash following World War I led to the repeal of this right in many states. However, over the past 25 years, local governments in Maryland, New York, Illinois, and Massachusetts have permitted immigrants to vote in various types of local elections. Seven cities in Maryland and Massachusetts have passed laws allowing immigrants to vote in all local elections. New York City and Chicago have allowed immigrants to vote in local school board elections. Major U.S. jurisdictions, including Los Angeles, New York City, and Washington D.C., are currently considering proposals that would allow immigrants to participate in all local elections. Q: Isn't voting by immigrants prohibited by the U.S. Constitution? A: NO. While the U.S Constitution allows only citizens to vote in federal elections, as discussed above, for most of this country's history, immigrants could vote and even run for political office at the local and state levels. Indeed, many of the founding fathers recognized that allowing such participation while awaiting citizenship encouraged immigrants to build a stronger bond to their local communities. This proposal by Supervisor Gonzalez is in an area where participation by immigrants is particularly important. The U.S. Supreme Court has said that all children, including all immigrants, have a constitutional right to education and has never prohibited voting by immigrants. Q: Why can't immigrants simply wait until they become citizens before being allowed to vote for the school board? A: First, the process of becoming a U.S. citizen takes an extremely long time, often up to ten years after an individual has immigrated to the U.S. given current backlogs and bureaucratic red tape. Second, immigrants pay taxes, serve in the military, and contribute in many ways to the economic and cultural vitality of San Francisco. One of the reasons for San Francisco's economic prosperity is because of its large immigrant population. In fact, the National Academy of Sciences reported that immigrants add $10 billion each year to the U.S. economy. Given their enormous contributions, immigrants should have the same ability as others to fully participate in their children's education and hold the education system accountable to meeting their children's needs. Q: Won't this proposal give immigrants less of an incentive to naturalize? A: NO. There are many social and practical reasons for immigrants to become U.S. citizens, and the vast majority of immigrants who are eligible for citizenship will naturalize over the course of their lives. This proposal applies narrowly to the issue of helping immigrant parents participate fully in their children's education. It does not confer any other benefits or affect the many other incentives for immigrants to become U.S. citizens, such as the ability to participate in or receive aid from numerous government programs, to be eligible for a wide range of government jobs, and the right to vote in federal and state elections. Ultimately, most immigrants decide to naturalize not just because of these concrete benefits but also because of their sense of changed identity. The longer people remain in the U.S., the more likely they are to naturalize. Q: What is the process of qualifying this measure for the ballot? A: After the measure is introduced, the Board of Supervisors' Rules Committee will hold a public hearing on the proposal, and if approved by the committee, the measure would go to the full Board for a vote. Because the measure is an amendment to the City and County of San Francisco's Charter, at least six members of the Board must vote for the measure for it to qualify for the November 2004 ballot. The measure will take effect only if it is approved by San Francisco voters. Click this link for an Immigrant Voting Fact Sheet To receive more information about Parents United for Education, please contact
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