White parents are making use of Nebraska's rules that let parents send their kids to any public school and are pulling their kids out of schools with lots of Hispanic immigrants. (same article here and here)
Like many of Nebraska's school systems, the Lexington district where Eisenhauer is superintendent has seen an influx of Hispanics, largely because of jobs at the meatpacking plants, and an accompanying exodus of white students to public elementary schools just outside town.
And there is nothing Eisenhauer can do about it. Nebraska law allows students to switch schools without giving a reason.
The white parents are fleeing an ethnic group that does poorly in school and which has more problems with broken families, crime, and other social pathologies. But of course some scoundrels are going to unfairly accuse the parents of ignorant prejudice.
There is a bill in the Nebraska legislature (which is uniquely unicameral if memory serves) to put a stop to white flight from schools. The one Hispanic state legislator is outraged that whites would flee from Hispanics. By contrast, I am outraged that illegal aliens are spreading across the great plains and that George W. Bush and Karl Rove want more, not less, of this. I am also outraged that these Hispanic illegal immigrants are there to drive down the wages in meatpacking plants where wages were already pretty low to begin with.
The ability to send kids to other districts is preventing a white flight at the level of residential neighborhood living.
Beginning in the 1960s, white flight to the suburbs left many big-city school systems across the country predominantly black. But what is happening in Nebraska is a different phenomenon: The white families are staying put; they are just sending their kids to school outside town.
This is possible because Nebraska, unlike many other states and communities, does not require students to attend the schools in the district in which they live.
If this bill passes then the white flight will escalate to the level of selling houses and buying or building houses in other school districts. This will be far more expensive for the white parents and will do serious harm to the quality of life in the towns and cities the whites will flee from. Take away the group that has the highest level of reproduction in marriage (Hispanics have about twice the illegitimacy rate of whites) and the most economically successful, educated, law-abiding, and civically active members of a community and that community will deteriorate. Of course, if more people who are poorly educated, earn lower incomes, have kids illegitimately at higher rates, and commit crimes at higher rates (and also see here) then the whites will eventually flee anyway. But take away their ability to put their kids in better schools and they will flee sooner and in larger numbers.
What is most disappointing about this story if that even if a person is willing to move to a fairly lowly populated state that is widely seen as undesirable due to climate and business conditions immigration still reaches such places and make them worse than they already are. We need to put a stop to massive immigration before more places in America become places to flee from.
Update: One other point: Nebraska has a grade school system that is, in effect, a public school voucher system. Why hasn't this fact attracted more attention from policy wonks and political commentators? Parents can send their kids to any public school that they can manage to arrange to have their kids transported to daily. It would be interesting to know what percentage of the parents used this ability before the Hispanics showed up. One reason vouchers are feared by middle and upper class suburbanites is that the suburbanites see vouchers as a mechanism that would take from them the rights to good schools (read: good fellow students) that they purchased when they bought their expensive houses. If Hispanics rather than whites start using the Nebraska system to send their kids to schools in other districts then expect the white population in Nebraska to quickly shift against the continuance of the current system.
By Randall Parker at 2005 February 21 12:17 PM Immigration Societal Decay | TrackBackRandall, as of last year the student composition of the Lexington Public Schools was 70% Hispanic, 28% non-Hispanic white, 1% Asian/Pacific Islander, .5% non-Hispanic black, and .5% American Indian/Alaska Native. The district’s school had a total of 2,551 students, as of May 28, 2004. 62% of the students were receiving free or reduced fee school meals. Source for this data is a Lexington Public Schools webpage.
The company with the most workers in Lexington (or the Lexington area) is Tyson Fresh Foods (http://sites.nppd.com/aedc/fastfacts.asp?city=Lexington).
As of 2000 only 57.4% of Lexington's 25 and older population were high school graduates or had a higher qualification (http://sites.nppd.com/censusdata/1603126910.pdf). Only 11.4% of Lexington's 25 and older population had a bachelor's or higher degree (http://sites.nppd.com/censusdata/1603126910.pdf). In 2000 Lexington's population was about half-Hispanic and 46% non-Hispanic white (http://sites.nppd.com/censusdata/1603126910.pdf).
By comparison Dawson County (Lexington is part of Dawson County) in 2000 was about 25% Hispanic and 73% non-Hispanic white (http://sites.nppd.com/censusdata/05031047.pdf). In 2000 73.6% of Dawson County's 25 and older population were high school graduates or had a higher qualification (http://sites.nppd.com/censusdata/05031047.pdf). 14.4% of Dawson County's 25 and older population had a bachelor's or higher degree (http://sites.nppd.com/censusdata/05031047.pdf).
By letting in so many Mexican and Central American adults with limited amounts of formal education the United States is lowering the average educational attainment level of its adult residents.
The U.S. Census Bureau may include people with GEDs as high school graduates. I think the GED can even be taken in Spanish.
Posted by: Proborders on February 21, 2005 07:12 PMProborders,
Ah, so that explains it. Tysons was caught a few years ago systematically arranging for the recruitment of Mexican illegals to bring to their factories to hire at lower wages as they fired their existing white workforces. So they are the ones shafting Lexington Nebraska.
Posted by: Randall Parker on February 21, 2005 07:33 PMIn 1990 Dawson County, Nebraska, had a Census 2000 population of 19,940. Only 663 were Hispanic. Dawson County's Census 2000 population was 24,365. 6,178 were Hispanic.
References for the above info:
http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/QTTable?_bm=n&_lang=en&qr_name=DEC_1990_STF1_DP1&ds_name=DEC_1990_STF1_&geo_id=05000US31047
http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/QTTable?_bm=n&_lang=en&qr_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U_DP1&ds_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U&geo_id=05000US31047
Info. about Nebraska's only Hispanic State Senator:
Born in 1947 in Grand Island, Nebraska, State Senator Ray Aguilar was first "appointed to [the] Nebraska Legislature" in 1999. He was elected in 2000 and 2004. Senator Aguilar has 9 children.
Senator Aguilar's background includes membership in the U.S. Senate Republican Conference Task Force on Hispanic Affairs and the Task Force on the Productive Integration of the Immigrant Work Force. He has served as an "minority advisory member to [the] Nebraska Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education." Source for information about State Senator Aguilar is http://www.unicam.state.ne.us/senators/district35.htm
Correction:
The district’s schools had a total of 2,551 students, as of May 28, 2004.
Posted by: Proborders on February 21, 2005 08:41 PMThe whole "white flight" thing is just a smoke screen that was thrown up by Senator Ron Raikes during the debate on his bill to close all the K-8 schools in Nebraska. When pressed to qualify the bogus numbers he was presenting as fact about tax savings, he flew into a tirade about racism. Of course the media jumped all over that. Almost everything that was reported in the AP story about the small schools being a "haven for whites" is false, and the quotes from Mr. Eisenhauer are part of the continuing misinformation spread by the Association of School Administrators and the Teachers Union to get their bill passed. These groups want the small schools closed so the large, wasteful schools can suck more tax dollars out of the rural areas to finance more "administrative" staff, and goofy projects that have nothing to do with educating the children. The facts about this story can be found at:
http://www.northplattebulletin.com/NorthPlatteBulletin/stories/?deptID=3&pageID=3&storyID=5837
Posted by: Terry Hrdlicka on February 23, 2005 08:23 AMIts unfortunate that Americans have to waste so much time, money and effort on all their "racial issues". What was the Ellis Island immigrant request, something like "Give me your useless, your hopeless, your pathetic...". You got what you asked for.
Posted by: Misteri on March 10, 2005 07:45 PMIRELANDS AFRICAN IMMIGRANTS HAVE DISTINGUISHED THEMSELVES IN THE CRIME STSTISTICS WITHIN JUST A FEW YEARS
20 March 2004
Twenty per cent of prison population are non-nationals
According to prison statistics (March 2004), almost one in five people sent to jail are non-nationals.
Prison service director general, Sean Aylward, says that the shift in demographics has given rise to new demands in areas such as translation, education and racial equality. Of the 9,539 people in jail in 2001, 638 were Europeans (other than British or Irish), 131 Asians, 448 Africans, and 40 Central-South Americans. The nationality of 168 people was not recorded.
Our president along with congress senators and other theives are destroying America.
They are not in office to serve the tax paying citizens but to rape their hard earned noney of the true tax paying citizens. Our US Military should guarding the boarders of america.
Thank God for the minute men movement. I hope it grows to 100 of thuosans of volintrees.
These men and woman are doing something to salvage our Country Namely keep"illegals out"my granparents came from canada and germant my othtr grand parents are 100% hungarian.
They have one great thing in connen. They all came "LEGALLY" through elis island in nyc
The first thing they did was learn the English language ..Iremember the day he was naturalized.
He stood in the kitchen and sang our national anthen then he stood up tall and straight and recited the pledge af allegance . With tears in his eyes he boldly annuonsed "I AM A AMERICA"
The immigrants comeing in now want us to learn their language and get all the benifits that American citizens have. It gets me mad as hell to see them flying their mexican flags on the streets of america. They have no intention on assimulateing.
Warning these quiet little poultry and beef communitys will eventually turn into violent drug infested havens for murduros street gangs. See LA and Tucson Wath what happens in Atlanta and North Carolina
I have heard that 40% of our prison population is mexican. 30% are ILLEGAL.
George Bush is hell bent on letting illegals pour into our country.Likewise he is hell bent on exporting jobs to communist countrys like china.
Thank you for letting me air some of my frustrations
Eugene Delaney
Posted by: Gene Delaney on April 3, 2005 08:02 PMLatino can be of any race, even white, it's kinda hard to believe but it's true. Some are white and some are not, and they may become majority and Caucasians minority of America in the future. It may be just an opinion but we don't know yet, if it'll really happen, we'll just have to find out and wait. Some hispanics may be just here to find better jobs and make lots of money, then later move back, and fully one-third of them marry Caucasians, and even black. It'll be probably more like equal if they continue to intermarry.
Posted by: Daniel on April 14, 2005 06:42 PMOur [President] president along with congress [Congress] senators and other theives [thieves] are destroying America.
They are not in office to serve the tax paying citizens but to rape their hard earned noney [money] of the true tax paying citizens. Our US Military should guarding [guard] the boarders [borders] of america. [America]
Thank [Thanks] God for the minute men [minutemen] movement. I hope it grows to 100 of thuosans [thousands] of volintrees. [volunteers]
These men and woman are doing something to salvage our Country Namely [namely] keep [keeping] "illegals out" [.] my [My] granparents [grandparents] came from canada [Canada] and germant [Germany] my othtr [other] grand parents [grandparents] are 100% hungarian. [Hungarian]
They have one great thing in connen [common]. They all came "LEGALLY" through elis [Ellis] island [Island] in nyc [New York]
The first thing they did was learn [learning] the English language [SOMETHING YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE A LONG TIME AGO, PARTICULARLY IF YOU WERE BORN IN THE UNITED STATES] ..Iremember the day he was naturalized.
He stood in the kitchen and sang our national anthen [anthem] then he stood up tall and straight and recited the pledge af [of] allegance [allegiance]. With tears in his eyes he boldly annuonsed [announced] "I AM A AMERICA" [AN AMERICAN]
The immigrants comeing [coming] in now want us to learn their language [LEARNING A SECOND LANGUAGE CAN GIVE YOU GREAT INSIGHT INTO YOUR OWN LANGUAGE] and get all the benifits [benefits] that American citizens have. It gets me mad as hell to see them flying their mexican [Mexican] flags on the streets of america [America]. They have no intention on assimulateing. [assimilating]
Warning these quiet little poultry and beef communitys [communities] will eventually turn into violent drug infested havens for murduros [murderous] street gangs. See LA and Tucson Wath [watch?] what happens in Atlanta and North Carolina
I have heard that 40% of our prison population is mexican. 30% are ILLEGAL.
George Bush is hell bent on letting illegals pour into our country.Likewise he is hell bent on exporting jobs to communist countrys [countries] like china. [China]
Thank you for letting me air some of my frustrations
Eugene Delaney
IGNORANCE IS THE SOURCE OF PREJUDICE. PEOPLE LEARN PREJUDICE AND DISCRIMINATION FROM THOSE AROUND THEM.
Pilar Lopez
(Born and raised in Peru - presently a US resident)
In response to the Feb. 2005 article: White flight from Nebraska Schools caused by Hispanic Immigrants...You folks in Lexington, Nebraska think you have a problem...just come on over to Lexington, Kentucky.I cannot believe the gall of our state's business and politcal leader's, thinking that the residences of this state would tolerate the invasion of thousands of illegal-aliens. I don't blame any native-born American for trying to escape this mess!
Posted by: Aaron L. Arnold on May 20, 2005 01:02 PM