As the country awaits a decision from President Trump on the fate of young immigrants who were brought into the country illegally as children, the leaders of more than three dozen Arizona school districts have weighed in on the matter.
Of the dozens of superintendents who signed off on the letter, which focuses on the potential elimination of DACA, three are from the Tucson area: David Baker of Flowing Wells, Steve Holmes of Sunnyside and Pima County School Superintendent Dustin Williams.
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is designed to help undocumented youth living in the United States.
Saying that many of their students, staff, parents and community members are DACA recipients or are DACA eligible, the leaders argued that the elimination of the program will have a "dramatic economic impact to our respective counties, Arizona, and our country."
"Many of our employees are DACA recipients — from teachers to technology specialists," the statement reads. "We will have classrooms that need long-term substitutes, cafeterias that need cooks, sports teams that need coaches, and counseling centers that need counselors. With school systems that are already deprived of people and resources, this brings us great concern."
More importantly, the leaders said, is the impact on students.
"We will have students, already living in poverty, who will see their household annual income decline drastically, if not completely," the letter says. "We will have high school seniors, college within reach, who will have to alter their post-secondary plans. We have alumni attending community colleges and universities who will be forced to drop out. We have high school and college graduates, currently working full-time throughout the state, who will become unemployed. Many of these individuals are the breadwinners of their families or, even worse, the sole income. The social, emotional, and financial toll this will take on our communities is far greater than the general public is aware."
