‘We need help’: Minnesota educators tell lawmakers how ICE surge has hurt schools
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The surge of federal immigration agents into the Twin Cities the past two months has traumatized children, driven school absenteeism higher and led to new budget problems for Minnesota districts, 22 educators and school leaders told a state Senate panel Wednesday.
“We need help. We need support,” Brenda Lewis, superintendent of Fridley Public Schools, told Senate Education Policy Committee lawmakers at a hearing where people shared stories of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents frightening students and staff outside school and deporting school children and their families.
In Willmar Public Schools, west of the Twin Cities, attendance fell significantly in December as the surge began. Absences stabilized but then fell again the week of Jan. 12 “when one of our students was detained by ICE agents downtown,” Bill Adams, the Willmar superintendent, told lawmakers.
The student, he said, is a legal resident who returned home after several days detained at the Whipple Federal Building in the Twin Cities. “But the event triggered a severe disruption. That week, out of our 4,000 students, we saw an average of 936 daily absences, peaking at 1,214 on a single day.”
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Columbia Heights Public Schools has had several students and their parents detained by ICE. The resulting absences and challenges will cost the district nearly $2 million, according to superintendent Zena Stenvik, who said the district is already facing a significant loss in state funding.
Mary Granlund, chair of the Columbia Heights school board, echoed those concerns.
“As a school board, we have made big cuts over the last years, and we try to make cuts as far away from the classroom as we can. We are not going to be able to do that anymore,” she said. “This surge impacts us financially as well as emotionally, as well as physically.”
Granlund told lawmakers there was nowhere else to cut spending after the last month of stressors on students, staff and families.
Some who spoke Wednesday asked legislators to increase funding for mental health and trauma support.
“Our students have faced unspeakable trauma under ICE’s occupation,” said Sarah Lindsey, a teacher and parent in Minneapolis. “These children are ours, and they are suffering. We need you to address the MPS budget crisis, to invest in more funding for mental health support and to address the deep educational losses of our impacted students.
State Sen. Mary Kunesh, the committee chair, said the Legislature had provided funding to help districts address the absenteeism and mental health needs of students in the COVID-19 years, “and now it is clear that we are back to Ground Zero due to the terrorizing action by ICE.”
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