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Martin, CA Candidate For State Superintendent of Instruction Defends Public Ed For All
Leonard James Martin, Candidate for California State Superintendent of Public Instruction outlines his view of whether or not to provide education of immigrant children without papers. He is the only candidate for State Superintendent of Public Instruction to stand up against the growing scapegoating of Latino and immigrant workers by Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner in California and politicians in Arizona who have passed the racist law SB 1070. His position of making the multi-nationals and corporations pay for education for all should be the demand of working people.
PRESS RELEASE #13 – James Martin, CA Candidate For State Superintendent of Instruction Defends Public Education For All
May 24, 2010
By Leonard James Martin
Candidate for the State of California Superintendent of Public Instruction 2010
EDUCATING THE CHILDREN OF IMMIGRANTS WITHOUT PAPERS AT TAXPAYER EXPENSE
MAKE THE MULTI-NATIONALS AND CORPORATIONS PAY FOR EDUCATION FOR ALL
A voter asked: "Do you Support or Oppose spending taxpayer money to educate the children of illegal immigrant"
Listening to Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner you'd think that was the most important question in this election. Whitman wimps out, in her TV commercial, by ignoring K-12 students, saying only that she would not spend taxpayer dollars on illegal immigrants seeking higher education. Poizner's commercials ignore the question but give the same impression that voters are apparently supposed to get from Whitman: they would deport all workers without papers.
The question the voter raised, and the statements by both Poizner and Whitman, make no distinction between children of immigrants without papers who are born here and those children who come here without documentation, which is a significant distinction. Assuming the voter's question is only about kids who are themselves here without papers, the answer is obvious. As long as the nation allows immigrants without papers to live and work in California, with the assumption that these children will become permanent residents of this state, we had better educate them to the full extent that we can.
To refuse education but allow them to remain in the state would create an intolerable condition for all of us. You would have a permanent population of unemployed living in poverty, with crime as a reasonable outcome.
Or, we can educate immigrants without papers and create a self-supporting population that will contribute to the well being of all of us.
To take the short-sighted position that we can save a lot of money by refusing to educate immigrants without papers is to head in the direction of chaos. If that's what you want, vote for a Whitman/Poizner-type running for superintendent. But if you really want to deal with the situation in a realistic way, elect someone who recognizes the folly of the "Stop educating illegals" position.
When the federal government is ready to create a civil war - do you really want that? - by attempting to deport an estimated twelve million immigrants without papers and their children, many of whom are legally citizens of the U S, then you can seriously raise the question of no longer paying for the education of immigrant children without papers. But in the midst of potentially great riots that will destroy our cities, there may not be many schools left to educate any kids.
This policy of "scapegoating" immigrant workers has a long history in the United States. In fact during the 1930's there were massive raids and deportation of hundreds of thousands of immigrant Mexican workers as well as many US citizens by the Democratic Roosevelt administration. These US citizens are still fighting for compensation after being illegally removed from their own country. Blaming immigrant workers for the economic crisis caused by the capitalist system is the same reactionary tactic of those who do not want to blame the system that created this crisis but instead want to blame immigrants and their families. The recent racist law SB 1070 passed by Arizona and the escalating attack on immigrant workers and their children is a threat to not only immigrants and Latinos but all working people in the United States.
To those who would refuse education to immigrant children without papers here: When was the last time you asked your gardener for a green card? Or the guys who put on your new roof? What about the assistant who helped your painter, or the termite inspector, or dozens of other people who do work for you either daily or from time to time? It is one thing to speak theoretically about removing immigrants without papers who, it is claimed, are a great financial burden on the country or our schools. It is another to think practically about just who these immigrants are.
It is also important to recognize that it is the very policies of the US government, both Democrats and Republicans, who have pushed NAFTA and the WTO which privatized the rail, telecom and other industries as well as driving the peasants off the land have created even greater migration to the US. It is no accident that there are big billionaires in Mexico. These billionaires with the support of US multi-nationals and US politicians have looted the public resources and driven workers out of their jobs in Mexico, forcing them to come to the United States for work. Is it any accident that the drug wars are on the border where US multi-nationals built factories at cheap labor
with no infrastructure for the people on the border towns. Building border walls will not stop this migration. It is the very economic policies passed by the Democrats and Republicans who are controlled by the multi-national corporations that have created this crisis. We need to abolish NAFTA and support the public ownership of those resources that have been privatized for greater profits of the billionaires. This will help the Mexican working people and the US people who also have paid the cost of NAFTA. The massive wealth that has been extracted from the working people of Mexico and US by outsourcing their jobs, cutting wages and pitting the working people of one country against another should be used to pay for education of all people in the United States and Mexico. It is also significant while these immigrant bashing politicians like Whitman and Poizner do not call for ending the right of the corporations to have "open borders". They support the right of the super rich to move their money around for more profits and union busting but want stronger borders for working people.
In both countries there is also a push for privatization of education by the same people like the Gates and Broad Foundation. Their privatization policies will destroy education for working people and is making education a profit-making venture for the corporations and the rich. Is this what we need for our children? I think not.
My position may not satisfy the voter who raised the question, but it is a lot closer to reality than the political ads telecast by Meg Whitman or Steve Poizner.
http://leonardmartin.us/wordpress/
http://leonardmartin.us/wordpress/platform
Leonard James Martin
For the State of California, Superintendent of Public Instruction 2010
Leonardj.martin [at] gmail.com
P. O. Box 802888
Santa Clarita, California 91380-2888
http://leonardmartin.us/wordpress/
http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=353608
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/17/BA1J1DF1CR.DTL
FaceBook Profile: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.php?id=100000011360041
Best Regards,
Leonard J. Martin
Home (661) 297-4815
Cell (661) 400-0059
May 24, 2010
By Leonard James Martin
Candidate for the State of California Superintendent of Public Instruction 2010
EDUCATING THE CHILDREN OF IMMIGRANTS WITHOUT PAPERS AT TAXPAYER EXPENSE
MAKE THE MULTI-NATIONALS AND CORPORATIONS PAY FOR EDUCATION FOR ALL
A voter asked: "Do you Support or Oppose spending taxpayer money to educate the children of illegal immigrant"
Listening to Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner you'd think that was the most important question in this election. Whitman wimps out, in her TV commercial, by ignoring K-12 students, saying only that she would not spend taxpayer dollars on illegal immigrants seeking higher education. Poizner's commercials ignore the question but give the same impression that voters are apparently supposed to get from Whitman: they would deport all workers without papers.
The question the voter raised, and the statements by both Poizner and Whitman, make no distinction between children of immigrants without papers who are born here and those children who come here without documentation, which is a significant distinction. Assuming the voter's question is only about kids who are themselves here without papers, the answer is obvious. As long as the nation allows immigrants without papers to live and work in California, with the assumption that these children will become permanent residents of this state, we had better educate them to the full extent that we can.
To refuse education but allow them to remain in the state would create an intolerable condition for all of us. You would have a permanent population of unemployed living in poverty, with crime as a reasonable outcome.
Or, we can educate immigrants without papers and create a self-supporting population that will contribute to the well being of all of us.
To take the short-sighted position that we can save a lot of money by refusing to educate immigrants without papers is to head in the direction of chaos. If that's what you want, vote for a Whitman/Poizner-type running for superintendent. But if you really want to deal with the situation in a realistic way, elect someone who recognizes the folly of the "Stop educating illegals" position.
When the federal government is ready to create a civil war - do you really want that? - by attempting to deport an estimated twelve million immigrants without papers and their children, many of whom are legally citizens of the U S, then you can seriously raise the question of no longer paying for the education of immigrant children without papers. But in the midst of potentially great riots that will destroy our cities, there may not be many schools left to educate any kids.
This policy of "scapegoating" immigrant workers has a long history in the United States. In fact during the 1930's there were massive raids and deportation of hundreds of thousands of immigrant Mexican workers as well as many US citizens by the Democratic Roosevelt administration. These US citizens are still fighting for compensation after being illegally removed from their own country. Blaming immigrant workers for the economic crisis caused by the capitalist system is the same reactionary tactic of those who do not want to blame the system that created this crisis but instead want to blame immigrants and their families. The recent racist law SB 1070 passed by Arizona and the escalating attack on immigrant workers and their children is a threat to not only immigrants and Latinos but all working people in the United States.
To those who would refuse education to immigrant children without papers here: When was the last time you asked your gardener for a green card? Or the guys who put on your new roof? What about the assistant who helped your painter, or the termite inspector, or dozens of other people who do work for you either daily or from time to time? It is one thing to speak theoretically about removing immigrants without papers who, it is claimed, are a great financial burden on the country or our schools. It is another to think practically about just who these immigrants are.
It is also important to recognize that it is the very policies of the US government, both Democrats and Republicans, who have pushed NAFTA and the WTO which privatized the rail, telecom and other industries as well as driving the peasants off the land have created even greater migration to the US. It is no accident that there are big billionaires in Mexico. These billionaires with the support of US multi-nationals and US politicians have looted the public resources and driven workers out of their jobs in Mexico, forcing them to come to the United States for work. Is it any accident that the drug wars are on the border where US multi-nationals built factories at cheap labor
with no infrastructure for the people on the border towns. Building border walls will not stop this migration. It is the very economic policies passed by the Democrats and Republicans who are controlled by the multi-national corporations that have created this crisis. We need to abolish NAFTA and support the public ownership of those resources that have been privatized for greater profits of the billionaires. This will help the Mexican working people and the US people who also have paid the cost of NAFTA. The massive wealth that has been extracted from the working people of Mexico and US by outsourcing their jobs, cutting wages and pitting the working people of one country against another should be used to pay for education of all people in the United States and Mexico. It is also significant while these immigrant bashing politicians like Whitman and Poizner do not call for ending the right of the corporations to have "open borders". They support the right of the super rich to move their money around for more profits and union busting but want stronger borders for working people.
In both countries there is also a push for privatization of education by the same people like the Gates and Broad Foundation. Their privatization policies will destroy education for working people and is making education a profit-making venture for the corporations and the rich. Is this what we need for our children? I think not.
My position may not satisfy the voter who raised the question, but it is a lot closer to reality than the political ads telecast by Meg Whitman or Steve Poizner.
http://leonardmartin.us/wordpress/
http://leonardmartin.us/wordpress/platform
Leonard James Martin
For the State of California, Superintendent of Public Instruction 2010
Leonardj.martin [at] gmail.com
P. O. Box 802888
Santa Clarita, California 91380-2888
http://leonardmartin.us/wordpress/
http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=353608
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/17/BA1J1DF1CR.DTL
FaceBook Profile: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.php?id=100000011360041
Best Regards,
Leonard J. Martin
Home (661) 297-4815
Cell (661) 400-0059
For more information:
http://leonardmartin.us/wordpress/
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