901 Migrant Education - Farming [the Future]; Images/Imagenes

But you know if you know the water by the boat a lot of those are done if you go to the. This is the Garden State New Jersey. Farming and fishing bring in a multimillion dollar profit. Every year thousands of migrant workers pass through and settle here helping make our state prosper. The workers bring families. Uprooting them from as near as a neighboring county or state or as far away as Portugal Puerto Rico or even Mexico. Thank

you. The flow of migrants bring children speaking English Spanish and sometimes even Portuguese children and hope for their families from farm to farm from Port. Looking for work. Frequent moves often create gaps in the children's schooling lessening their opportunities to succeed. Some dream of doing farm work like their parents. Others have no choice. Some aspire to be teachers and lawyers. Will they make it. Can they make it. They belong to everyone and yet to no one. But while the longing to migrant teachers they're farming the

future. So on Tuesday Wednesday. And Friday. Hello I'm Pamela Gardner. To farmers they mean cheap labor. Two union organizers they mean future members to their power and they mean more mouths to feed into their teachers. They mean more work. Where are they. These children of the harvest. And what's being done nationally to help some one million school age migrant children. Many of whom are still picking the fruits and vegetables that you and I eat every day. Specifically what are educators doing to help those children attending school to replace their Harvest Of Shame With the benefits of the harvest of hope. Let's take a closer look. I can remember a time way back when my family used to work on the farm when

we used to work on the farm. Picking tomatoes cucumbers whatever the cop was at the time. Even at that early age. I can remember that I always wanted to be a teacher but I always wanted to pursue a career in education at the time I also thought of going to school my my brothers and sisters. I thought I'm having a difficult time because of the language because of the problems of school discrimination and so on they were not able to make it that I was able to stay and continue in spite of all the obstacles that I encounter. I was able to get my bachelor's degree my master's I am presently working on my doctoral degree here at Rutgers University. Education was always very important to me. I saw education as a way out of. The present situation that I was involved in I did not want to remain in my grandchild for the rest of my life. I also felt that education was not only the way for me but it was

also the only way that a lot of our children could also progress in this society in general will for the two little kids here yes we will insist but it's a bunch of people you techie lasagnas even a secretary could say they get back their letters to a party. But if you put given the stack you will know what the president is all but have him hold it Ducie other look up via anything from you. My my my my make up off into some other little Egypt comment about I said less clearly but they got stuck in other words that. Went on the mother some which will end this but going to love the Libyan. Second when did I say that I don't like what I think the same which is that the missile going to some ice is going to play then I hear that gun opinion doing less. See them go by just less meeting with this gig discusses their you that want to. Get the ghost as to the

end when the last artist of that but I will call the. I'm about to put the chemical stuff Sevendust legis. Among the 50 states New Jersey ranks 46 in size it comes in first in the average value of. Approximately eight thousand

four hundred seventy million dollars. Nationally New Jersey ranks second in production of blueberries. They were in production in cranberries and. Potatoes and tomatoes. A New Jersey fishing industry although concentrated in South Jersey escape me area extends along the one hundred twenty seven mile Atlanta coastline. And is not only lending industry president went on the fishing industry here in Cape May County brings fish and out of the ocean packages that distributes primarily on the East Coast some on the West Coast.

But now we also are distributing to foreign countries. We go out. We try to catch fish try to bring them in try to get a decent price for them and and in turn go back out try to catch some more so just farming in the city. Our history is similar to the farmers you'll find a lot of boats. Will Follow the fish hundreds of boats that have to chase the fish up and down the coast. At different time periods for instance. Winter time a lot of fish have to go south towards. A lot of boats have to go south because the fish go south. And they're working off the Carolinas. As the weather warms up the fish migrate. Up to the east as we say up off of Massachusetts. And the boats therefore chase them up there. If you're not where the fish are. You're not going to catch anything. You don't catch anything you're not going to make a living. So as the saying goes you have to go where the fish go. Kate may is the second largest. As far as dollar value and pound it just goes sour in Boston glossy area is the price became a county

is the second largest area along the East Coast. It probably represents 350 in 100 million dollars that goes into the pockets of the local people either directly or indirectly. The. Earnings of higher farm workers in the United States are among the lowest of all occupational groups which averaged over $14000 in 1979 due primarily to limited job and educational opportunities. Bennett farm workers work more days earning more money than whites and blacks almost one third of all migrants travel 500 miles or more from their place of residence to do farm work. Sixty seven percent of Hispanics but only 16 percent of whites travel 500 or more miles annually.

Now. They're like oh boy. Sweets bill New Jersey is located in the heart of Gloucester County farmland between March and October suites Berber see is an influx of migrant families. Oh and. You know. What.

They're like oh boy. Oh boy. People could play at the quantitative says what about the side but I think women doesn't define you out I mean will it tell you that the pathetic working even as you know standing up you know I screwed out of that one Nancy. Couple you know I mean I understand Athena looking at you know the couple would say when I was young my son was a cesspit as soon as but I see her all kissing ass here that I don't think in the current political you're like I don't know what I thought of it when I thought but a lot of our London office and the one thought that the Republican Ultimately India jealous that I'm going you know building which is where they did on the toilet in yesterday on my jaw O'Connell when I get out of there so put on like people are going to propose to the committee about I think it bullying at the moment but that of the Cuban Look I don't want to go for that.

It is estimated that 12 out of every 100 migrant students graduate from high school with a higher dropout rate among blacks and Hispanics. Nearly one quarter of all farm workers fall between the ages of 14 and 17. This need to work to boost family income is a factor contributing to dropping out and sporadic school attendance. What does modern education. What does it really mean. Education isn't just a term that we're going to say I feel sorry for the youngsters. What it means is that we have a very mobile society in this country and we have zero in right now cultural my professional youngsters. But why that youngster. It's because as you move from place to place we're looking into your educational program the program is intended to serve migrant children felt throughout the country we're talking to one of the synagogue nine hundred twenty five thousand children. And aren't there different classifications of migrant children.

We have we call intrastate intrastate migrant children we have shown that dropped out of the migrant stream which we serve agricultural migrant children and we serve Fisher fishermen's children from out of my own education program we stress free programs may make early childhood program for three and four year old migrant children. Language Arts tutorial program for children 5 to 17 years old and they learn in one program for secondary school. Migrant children are thrust is this is twofold a tutorial program for the children especially during the regular term program and then we have a concept that we've initiated recently what we call a linker concept where we use highly skilled and trained person to serve I guess to bridge the gap or to serve as a light Laz on between the school the home the community and agencies one of the highlights of the program in Connecticut is what we call the ethnic art component component to bring the culture to the migrant child through one instruction or programs.

We are very concerned with the basis kills and we we try to find differing ways and approaches in which the child force his his language skills but through the music on the art we offer a variety. Of opportunities for my pursuits to achieve in Virginia on the eastern shore. As I say that we have a full curriculum and then we have the support of services of course to go along with that in the in the tutorial program we offer basically a one to one. We have quite a few eyelash but state resource and material center which we operate in our state. It has been successful in dealing with teachers who work with migrant children and we also have a fairly extensive interstate career awareness program that involves three additional southeastern states within the United States. We asked how the national my going education program is the money that's

appropriated by Congress for the whole of the Elementary and Secondary Education Program under Title 1. The migrant portion is a special categorical program because of the needs of the youngsters and because of the mobility of the youngsters. But when the youngster then moves to another States a Pennsylvania New Jersey or or California or what have you that state then is responsible for identifying the youngster putting him into the computer system thereby cutting off the sending state and then the receiving state at the end of the year of a calendar year. Then what we do is that we count up the full time equivalent days. The youngster is in Residence in any one of those states against the money and then it's divided up amongst the states so that truly the money is follow the child. The migrant children in the past have been kind of the last group of youngsters who have not really been dealt with in the educational programs throughout the country. The last several years there's been a great emphasis to look at these children and to try to meet their needs because of the fact that they move so frequently.

Many of the children come and always stay in our school for two months or three months and then they move on to another school another state or even another hall area in the state of New Jersey. This movement creates a lot of gaps in their education. Education has really try to place personnel in the schools or working within schools to zero in and to identify the needs of the youngster and to try to address them. Another aspect that we try to. Work on. Personal development of the migrants to the development of self-esteem. Career. We are in this aspect of the student or the secondary school level. Preparing the student to get out and be a part of a competitive part of the job market. In very competitive times. I think that. With the coordination of the prose of my

village case and with other programs. Keeping the integrity and the individuality of the program that eventually. We will be able to comprehensively. All of the students. Who need the services in New Jersey. As a coordinator I test the child to find out what their educational needs are. I work with the school nurse to make sure they had their shots and that their records are up to date. We work again with the home school liaison who helps to make sure they get to the doctor should they need shots and work with the classroom teachers in particular to identify a program to help meet their needs. When a child comes to me I enroll them and within a few weeks I receive a complete computerized record of their health record if they've had any problems in the past if they need glasses. If the props they were identified as having special needs wet their educational testing has been in the district they were at before and any other additional information that the school district thinks is important. For example this year we did have an epileptic child move into our

district that was very important that we know that immediately and when we received our records it was a great help of course to the school nurse and other personnel to know how to deal with that. When a child leaves my district then I also fell out information and the tests that I have administered any inoculations that they have had to be updated on this form and then I make sure they get sent to the computer base which will forward it. Once they receive from the next school district that the child has arrived their home school is on. Hold. Programming County what I usually do is just recruit students and enroll into our program and we provide supportive services and some educational services. Well I must say callers is one of my proudest achievements as far as what he's been doing. With the migrant people and with the migrant students and there are many other students we've seen coming through the program who. Have gained a great deal and we feel have learned a lot that will help them to be better citizens and do a lot for Humanity hopefully.

Do you see yourself almost as a role model also for some of the children. Yes. Yes I do because I have kids that. I could talk to and they relate to me and. They come to my house anytime and we could talk about our problems and we do anything from take them to the school to take them to hospital we had a girl that. Had a very. Bad problem. We weren't sure what it was but she got awfully sick from it it was some belief and somehow her religion or thing and we ended up taking her to the hospital. The greatest.

Need. I think it's easy. To. Prepare. To enter. To broaden his knowledge. Than it is to correct a deficiency. Unfortunately. Congress has not. Funded. My going to education. For early childhood activities. I think that the program has been been very successful. I think we have increased the number of days that a migrant child spends in a classroom setting. Cried to nineteen. Seventy five. It was. Ascertained that my going to like a child only spends about. 90 days out of a hundred a day school year. In a classroom. Today that.

That amount of time has increased. Tremendously. It has provided them with an awareness and a feeling of being wrong. The school was here. There's children identified and there's a hand out there saying hi welcome here we're going to help you in whatever way we can. Most of the people talk about forming they think about the children who are coming along through the virgin years and Marilyn's And you know picking the crops as they go along well our children follow a crop too it's a secret the mobility of many people in United States. Is one of economics people who have the wherewithal to move a skilled worker who is going from place to place like if you work for DuPont you have mobility we know that if you're working for General Electric you have mobility. You have this type of mobility but it's a preferred economic level. They have a job waiting for them. So I think you cannot compare the migrants mobility that one level mobility has gone because it's of economic benefit to

migrant mobility is just sheer survival. There's no work left here and if you want to eat you better move. What is the National Football League doing. The migrant education program. We have about 35 percent of our football players who come from a migrant background themselves. So we started a program with the New York Giants the New York Jets and the Buffalo Bills. And this is our fifth year in participating. Right now we have 12 players who are actively working three to five days a week in the program. But more important than that the National Football League charities is very much interested in seeking to place some funds with the migrant focus. What exactly is goals for you as an NFL program using players working as counselors with what we do is we're plugged into the normal tutoring session. Once a week we take away our touring sessions and spend a 45 minute period working on a one to one basis with

teenagers in a setting as a life counseling type program. We bring some people to give the players background and migrant. Farm life and migrant lifestyle and give them an overview about my going to education first before we just send them out counseling so they have a better understanding of what the entire education program is. How do the students the kids that you work with react to the program. So far we have been having trouble recruiting kids. We can only work with about 10 to 15 kids five a day and it's two to three day a week commitment. There are very enthusiastic about working with a national player even though the migrant education program has met with success in achieving its goals. The recent round of national budget cuts appear to be threatening the program's very existence. It's essential that. We be concerned about what happens to social

agencies as they relate to education agencies. We can't simply be concerned with our own agency. And disregard what's happening to social welfare agencies out there that do impact. Education. I think that with the budget cuts. That. We have to be concerned with more than just what's cut from my good education we have to be concerned with what's called across the board. Because as we try to correlate our categorical programs here. We fully understand that. Even though we make or the programs provide better services. That. A particular social service agency. That provides let's say. Food stamps. To a migrant family might affect that family to the extent. That the children

will not. Come to school. With the proper nutrition and so on. That will impact on the kind of support of services that we provide in addition to the educational services so we have to be. Concerned with what happens to the family and all the resources that the family has available. I guarantee you ladies and gentlemen the educational program is again or do you know we have to give our children in this country. But that guaranteed in terms of mobility is dependent on the economic level of the family and if you say oh yes you know everything is come on and we're going to have a prayer meeting what have you when you pull them out of the fields and working they work piece work piece work they lose money by the hour. Think about it this way what if all of us we're paid piecework think about that for every member we wrote for every memo we wrote every meeting we went to get a little card stamped and at the end of the week we'd hand it in and somebody would give us something for two weeks then we get our money. How would you like to

operate that way. See it's easy to sit back and say well I'm sick today and I'm not going to be able to get paid to think about these work. When people say it's terrible that those kids are rotten fieldwork it is terrible. Sure but if we were paying work you don't think the victor there are these four kids and his wife and everybody else to be said not do the Xeroxing you're correlating is staring at me going to meetings left and right hand model carte blanche. The Department of Education not hired you. What for. First required. That's what modern families want. We began production on this show over a year ago. Since then a change of national leadership. Threatens to slam shut the doors of migrant education doors which have opened opportunities for over a million migrant children. The future of migrant education is uncertain. But what is certain is that the successes reaped from the harvest of hope may indeed return to the Harvest of Shame.