I remember how it was -- JR
Tuesday, February 13, 2024
Denver schools overwhelmed by migrant surge as mayor slashes $5M from public services to address crisis
A Denver public school teacher is sounding the alarm on the strain the migrant crisis is putting on classrooms as the city's Democratic mayor cuts millions from services for residents.
"We are already 100 students over projection, and we have new students coming in weekly. We're already past the October count. So every new student that we get, we don't have the funds to provide them with resources," teacher Priscilla Rahn told "Fox & Friends" Monday.
Mayor Mike Johnston pinned the blame on Republicans and former President Trump Friday while announcing $5 million in cuts from recreation centers, DMV services and city landscaping to pay for the migrant crisis.
"The choice by Republicans in Congress to purposefully kill a historic, bipartisan border deal this week will have a devastating impact in Denver," Johnston said after the Republicans blocked a bipartisan border deal, which included a foreign aid package for Ukraine and Israel, from advancing Wednesday.
"Despite broad bipartisan support, I think [former President] Trump and Republican leaders saw this as a chance that if this bill actually passed, it would have successfully solved the problem facing cities and the border, and they would have rather seen it fail, so they could exacerbate these problems, extend the suffering of American people and of newcomers for their own electoral changes this November," he said, according to The Hill.
Rahn, a candidate for Douglas County commissioner, called the cuts "incredibly unfair" for the city's families and placed the blame directly on President Biden, Mayor Johnston and Colorado Democratic Gov. Jared Polis.
"We have seen across America and now in Denver, the large difference between liberal ideology and the reality of governing," she said. "And so the president has created this mess. And what we've seen is the mayor respond very emotionally."
"What I'd like to see the mayor and the governor do is to address the problem at the border and ask the president to bring back some of those polices that would make it more manageable."
The cuts follow the mayor’s decision last month to divert $25 million from the city budget to the migrant crisis. That plan included pulling $10 million from a contingency fund and $15 million from a building remodel. Those actions followed the city’s decision to hold many positions vacant and review new or expanded contracts and programs.
Johnston says the crisis will cost the city around $180 million in 2024.
Texas has transported thousands of migrants to sanctuary cities like Denver, to showcase the problems that border states face when migrants flood their cities. Johnston told Fox News last week that the city was "very close" to a breaking point due to the crisis.
DHS Secretary Mayorkas to face second impeachment voteVideo
"I’m incredibly proud of how city team members have stepped up over the past year, but it is clear that the federal government is not going to support our city," Johnston said, fighting back tears at a Friday press conference.
Denver passed laws to become a sanctuary city, but it doesn't include a right-to-shelter provision, which means there is no official policy that compels the local government to provide shelter indefinitely.
Along with these department budget cuts, the city will decrease the number of migrants it serves and will continue to monitor spending, Johnston said. Earlier this week, the city began ejecting around 800 migrant families from shelters as it scales back on aid for illegal immigrants.
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Teacher Who Criticized ‘Woke Kindergarten’ Put on Leave by School District
An elementary school teacher who questioned a California school’s spending $250,000 on a teacher training program called “Woke Kindergarten” was placed on leave Thursday by his school district, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Glassbrook Elementary School used $250,000 in federal funds for underperforming schools to pay for training for teachers on how to be “anti-racist” and “disrupt whiteness” in the classroom. Now, the school district, Hayward Unified School District, has put teacher Tiger Craven-Neeley on leave for “allegations of unprofessional conduct” after he questioned the program, according to the Chronicle.
Craven-Neeley was told via a video call that he was being put on leave and ordered to turn in his keys and laptop, he told the Chronicle.
Craven-Neeley said he had voiced concerns over the program Wednesday at a staff meeting after the Chronicle last week ran an article that included his comments questioning the purpose of the program. After a short while, another teacher stood up, pointed a finger at him, and said, “You are a danger to the school or the community,” then stormed out, he told the Chronicle.
Shortly afterward, a school district administrator asked Craven-Neeley to leave the meeting, the Chronicle reported.
In comments to the Chronicle for a Feb. 3 article on “Woke Kindergarten,” Craven-Neeley questioned what it meant to “disrupt whiteness” in the classroom.
“What does that mean?” Craven-Neeley told the Chronicle. “I just want to know, what does that mean for a third-grade classroom?”
Scores for English and math at Glassbrook Elementary have fallen since the program’s implementation, with fewer than 4% of students posting proficient scores in math and a little under 12% testing at grade level in English. These were decreases of nearly 4 percentage points since “Woke Kindergarten” started at the school.
Neither Glassbrook Elementary nor the Hayward School District responded immediately to requests for comment.
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International students turned away in record numbers
Australia is on track for a steep fall in net migration after federal officials turned away thousands of overseas students who applied to start courses this month, bringing student visa grants down by 20 per cent in the biggest shift in two decades.
The cut to the education program is the biggest single factor in driving the total migrant intake down to 375,000 this financial year and putting it on course for 250,000 the following year.
The government’s migration strategy unveiled last year has imposed stronger English-language tests on students and requires them to prove they are genuine students before they enter the country, while making it harder for them to stay if they do not find jobs that help fill a skills shortage.
The government remains open to more controversial measures, such as a cap on student numbers or higher fees on their visa applications.
The cuts to student visas are not being felt across all universities. The biggest impact is at private colleges with low ratings for visa approvals and some universities are also writing to overseas applicants to cancel their applications because they will fail a tougher visa test put in place last year.
Most of the country’s leading universities are not seeing any big fall in overseas student numbers, the latest results show, because they have not fallen foul of the stricter tests within the department.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil sent a formal instruction to the Department of Home Affairs last year, known as Ministerial Direction 107, to tell officials to put a priority on student visa applications for universities with a good track record and to give the lowest priority to those for institutions with a history of problems.
This means the priority takes into account the track record of all overseas students at each institution so they are given a low ranking if they have had a large number of visa refusals, fraudulent applications or students who overstay their visas.
All the Group of Eight universities are in the “tier one” category in this new system, while the “tier three” group at the lowest level of the system is mainly made up of private vocational education colleges.
Australia has more than 650,000 overseas students and an increasing number of them are prolonging their stay by applying to do a second course, with 150,000 of the total being on their second student visa.
The results from the department show that overseas students are being turned away in record numbers because the visa grant rate has been driven down to 80 per cent, the lowest since records began in 2005.
In a rare fall, the student visa grants in December were lower than in November – a sign of fewer arrivals for the coming academic year – and are 20 per cent below the same period last year.
The outcome shows the department is bringing international student visa grants down from 370,000 last financial year to 290,000 this year and believes there is a reasonable chance the outcome will be slightly lower.
The new migration figures provide the first outcomes from the dramatic shift last year when the Coalition accused Labor of planning a “big Australia by stealth” and the government vowed to lower the intake and crack down on dubious visa claims.
Opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan criticised O’Neil for presiding over the biggest influx of overseas students as well as a record migrant intake last year.
“Labor says they don’t want a Big Australia but under the Albanese Government 900,000 people will arrive over two years and 1.625 million will arrive over five.”
O’Neil said the country could not sustain the big increase in migration after the borders were opened at the end of the pandemic. “Migration is too high and our government has taken action to bring it back to normal levels,” she said.
“The early signs are that these changes are working. We are seeing sharp decreases in numbers. This is led by deep cuts in the areas of higher education, where we have unfortunately seen widespread integrity issues.”
Another key factor in driving the migration intake down is a special program called the Pandemic Event Visa, which was introduced by the previous government with no fees and no skills test and attracted more than 100,000 people.
Labor closed the pandemic program to new applicants last year and expects 60 per cent to leave the country and the remainder to shift to other visas because they have skills that are in demand and jobs that pay above the $70,000 salary threshold for approval.
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My other blogs: Main ones below
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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