There’s a new summer STEM program for students in Oregon. Except it’s not for your kids. It’s for “migrant students” only, and you can bet damn well no one checks on the immigration or citizenship status of these teenagers. Students participating in the “Migrant Summer Connections Program” also get two “free” meals a day. Paid for by you. STEM, of course, stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
Salem, OR, based Statesman Journal reports:
As migrant families move from one location to another, following agricultural work, the children often miss portions of school.
These gaps can set the students back in credits and limit the opportunities they get to explore college and career options.
There are about 2,000 migrant students in the Salem-Keizer School District, a few hundred of whom are high school age. Any of the high school students whose families have moved for work in the last three years qualify for the new program, which is offered through a partnership with Chemeketa.
This year, 76 students are in the program, an increase from the 40-50 students that would participate each year in the previous Summer Migrant High School Program. It only included credit recovery.
In the new, four-week-long program, students spend their mornings in credit recovery classes, which count toward their diploma and are taught by Salem-Keizer teachers. Students can use these classes to catch up or get ahead.
In the afternoon, they break into four tracks — robotics, dental hygienics, pharmacy tech or early childhood education — which are taught by Chemeketa employees. They select their track at the start of the program and spend each afternoon exploring it in depth, earning college credit.
The program is free to the students; the district provides breakfast and a lunch voucher so the students can eat with Chemeketa students.
Brad Capener, director of migrant education for the school district, got the idea for the pilot program when he heard about a version in Texas seeing success in engaging and retaining students and exposing them to post-graduate choices.
Capener is interested in pursuing grants that would allow them to pay the students to attend the program since many pass the chance for work.
Yes, that’s right, they want to PAY illegal alien students to attend summer classes, in addition to everything being “free” to start with.
The legislative session that just wrapped up featured a nasty battle over the education budget. Gee, I have an idea as to what we can cut first!
You may recall that Oregon legislators passed a bill in 2015 that would give “FREE” college tuition to illegal aliens.
