A 16-year-old Guatemalan immigrant denied admission to Mamaroneck High School earlier this year, will enroll without paying tuition, after a State ruling.
The State Commissioner of Education MaryEllen Elia said the child, identified as C.M., has the right to enroll at Mamaroneck High School.
An interim ruling in May allowed him to enroll while he awaited the final decision.
The district had denied C.M. tuition-free access to the high school, saying that his middle school education in Guatemala was the highest level of compulsory education offered in that country, and therefore was not eligible to attend the high school for free.
The commissioner cited state education law which says that “[a] person over 5 and under 21 years of age who has not received a high school diploma is entitled to attend the public schools maintained in the district in which such person resides without the payment of tuition.”
If this becomes a trend (free admission to undocumented individuals), how can a school district, already overburdened, sustain educational services for even those students who pay?
Where is the line and what is sustainable?
If he is living in the district then his family is paying property taxes just like all district residents. Therefore he should receive free tuition like all other residents.
What is wrong with the school district, that it would seek to deny a 16 year old education based upon such an overly careful — and erroneous — reading of the law? It portrays the District as cold-hearted toward its residents (not for the first time) and wasteful of district funds in its willingness to litigate rather than offer residents what they are entitled to under state law. For shame.
Agreed!