Going to school in the United States is not only a duty but also a right.
Geraldine Méndez, a Venezuelan mother who arrived just 15 days ago from the southern border and her nine-year-old son is already receiving an education, is a witness to this truth.
“Yes, he’s happy. He is happy with his school,” Mendez said.
Mendez says she came to Santa Rita Church in Long Island City, Queens, looking for winter clothes.
To her surprise, the VOICE Charter School next door was offering tuition. She didn’t think twice and signed him up.
“He tells me that he is going to be patient, that the teacher told him little by little,” Méndez added.
Like Geraldine’s child, thousands have come to New York in less than a year hand in hand with their parents.
In another culture and faced with a language barrier, teachers are faced with the need to FIRST make them feel “comfortable”, before demanding them academically.
Teacher Danny Powell says it’s working.
“Some have started to speak the language, which is good. And they make a lot of friends, they seem happy to come to the school,” Powell said.
To assist educational centers such as VOICE, which has welcomed some 140 new immigrants into its classrooms in recent months, Mayor Eric Adams’ office proposes allocating $90 million.
The fund would give priority to schools with students in temporary public housing who are learning English and living in poverty.
More than 300 public schools in the city would benefit.
“We don’t want anything special about having them at our school, children are a gift. But these families need help and we are providing it,” said Franklin Headley, director of VOICE Charter School.
The principal showed laundry coupons that he gives away to parents who live in hotels turned shelters around the school.
Rosanny Rodríguez has an eleven-year-old girl and a nine-year-old boy at the same school.
“My son stands up on Saturday and says: ‘Mom, let’s go to school, let’s go to school.’ They loved school. They treated him well, they took good care of him,” Rodríguez said.
According to government data, one in ten students in New York public schools lives in poverty and in some form of shelter.
The mayor’s project needs to be approved by a city panel for school affairs. It would be of vital importance as more refugees are on the way. Nor have they said where the money would come from.
