Illegal Immigration & Rebuildingt Our Schools

By Bill Chambers

Legal Immigration - YES.......... ILLEGAL Immigration - NO!!!, California Must Rebuild Its Schools... Academically

By Bill Chambers - (Republican Candidate for California Governor 2010)

Other than Native Americans (a.k.a. Indians), all of us have ancestors from a foreign country. If it weren't for our ancestors migrating to this country, we wouldn't be here now. I am in favor of legal immigration. We have procedures and laws so that people can legally immigrate to our wonderful country. Some of us take our rights and freedoms for granted because we were born here and know no different. Others risk their lives to come to America. But, we cannot allow everyone who has the desire to live in America to come here. We have to limit the number of people allowed in our country. When allowing someone to live here through the legal process, we must not choose based on financial status or nationality. Illegal immigration by someone of any financial status or nationality should not be condoned.

Contrary to what we continually see in the news, illegal immigrants do not just come from Mexico. We have illegal immigrants in our country from just about every continent in the world. It is not a problem solely caused by our neighbor to the south. People who come here illegally create a financial hardship on each and every state. They may take a job away from one of our citizens, or one of our legal immigrants. They may take the funds needed to help one of our citizens or legal immigrants. If someone breaks the law by coming here illegally, our taxpayers should not have the burden of supporting them. If workers are needed from foreign countries, we should be using work visas to allow them to come and go freely across our borders legally. The only amnesty policy that we should consider would be for those individuals who came here legally and have not fulfilled their obligation to renew their documents.

Here's a hypothetical situation for all of you: A company hires 200 legal immigrants from Mexico to work in their factory. They're paid a fair wage and provided with minimal health benefits. The company finds out that there are 200 illegal immigrants from Antarctica who will work for less pay and do not want benefits. Should we have laws that will protect the 200 legal immigrants from Mexico or should we have laws that will protect the 200 illegal immigrants from Antarctica who will take the jobs away from the legal immigrants form Mexico? [If it's easier for you, you can substitute Mexico and/or Antarctica for any country(s) of your choosing.]

We have previously given "amnesty" to illegal immigrants in 1986 on the basis that we would enforce our immigration laws. The goal was to stop, or at least significantly reduce, the influx of illegal immigrants coming across our borders. This attempt to control illegal immigration has failed miserably. There have been talks going on in Washington D.C. lately in the House and Senate about immigration. Neither major party has shown true leadership on this issue. If we allow another "amnesty" for illegal immigrants, we will accomplish two things. 1.) We will show immigrants (both legal and illegal) that when we make policies or laws, we will not enforce them. 2.) We will continue to have an uncontrollable flow of illegal immigrants coming across our borders because they will not fear prosecution.

The idea of giving "amnesty" again shows that our government representatives are either not in touch with our citizens' opinions or they just don't care to represent the people who elect them to office. For many of us who have raised children, we learned that if we set rules for our children to follow and obey, we must enforce those rules in order to be effective parents. If our children realize that their parents won't enforce the rules that they establish, they will break those rules time and time again, knowing that there will be no consequences to contend with. This same philosophy applies to our government. We must have policies and laws that can and will be enforced. Passing laws just to pacify the electorate in order to look as though they're tough on illegal immigration does nothing for our country, unless they are willing to enforce the immigration laws they passed.

We need to modify our immigration laws or possibly amend our U.S. Constitution, in order to stop the practice of granting citizenship to a child who is born here of illegal immigrants. It should also include visitors from foreign countries who are here legally on vacation, with work visas, or education visas. The change would be a simple requirement. It should state that: "a child born in this country must be from parents having legal residence in this country in order to be a U.S. Citizen". It's simple and straight to the point.

Legal immigrants need to understand the problems that can be caused by illegal immigrants. Caesar Chavez, the founder of the United Farm Workers Union, knew some of the problems that occurred when illegal farm workers came across our borders. This was just one of his reasons for establishing a union. When immigrants (either legal or illegal) are willing to accept a lower wage than our current workers are being paid, this can cause an employer to fire their current workers in order to hire new workers at a reduced wage. Caesar Chavez saw the need to protect the jobs and incomes of the farm workers from having this situation happen. He also wanted to promote legal immigration to provide job security for farm workers.

Illegal immigrants do not have the ability to ensure that they are treated fairly in the workplace. If an employer refuses to pay their illegal employees the wages they promised, they have no recourse to recover their lost wages due to the fear of deportation. This fear of deportation also applies to any grievance that an illegal immigrant may have against an employer, landlord, loan shark, or co-worker.

The voters need to have their voices heard on their positions of immigration. People have become tired, angry, and fed up with our elected officials. This is the reason we typically have a 30% to 40% voter turnout at the polls on Election Day. Most politicians and special interest groups love the fact that voters don't turn out on Election Day. They don't worry about being held responsible or accountable to their electorate, since the overwhelming majority of the electorate refuses to vote. (These next two sentences are just for the 60% to 70% of registered voters who choose not to vote.) Rather than voters becoming apathetic towards politicians and the voting process, they need to get off their asses and vote in order to get OUR State and Country back on track for all of our sakes. If voters can't take thirty minutes of their time to vote, the politicians will never feel the need to represent the PEOPLE.

California Must Rebuild Its Schools

Year after year we hear that California's schools need more money to achieve its academic goals and reduce its drop-out rate. We can't afford to let this practice continue since it's not working. We need to rebuild our schools academically starting with the elementary schools. [ The process needs to be looked at as though we're rebuilding a house after a devastating earthquake. The foundation (elementary school) is the most important part of the rebuilding process. You can't expect the second floor (Intermediate & high school) to hold up under a poor foundation.] If children have not learned the basic skills of reading, writing, history, and mathematics in elementary school, they are doomed for failure when entering intermediate and high school. We cannot continue to advance students to the next grade without the skills needed to advance. This has to be understood by the students, parents, teachers, and administration because these four parts make up the foundation of our children's learning process. The same principals apply to California's college system, with the K-12 education as its foundation.

Class size seems to be a major issue today so I checked my own elementary school records (1961-1968). They were as follows: K-33, 1st-27, 2nd-36, 3rd-32, 4th-27, 5th-34, and 6th-30. In my 4th through 6th grades I was in combination classes. (For those of you that may not know, a combination class has two grade levels in one class, but with only one teacher.) My teachers never had assistant teachers or aids. How did they accomplish this when California's schools were consistently rated in the top ten in our country? Should we contact the teachers from the fifties and sixties for their advice to help today's teachers?

In the sixties school started around the 10th of September and ended around June 10th. They were closed for legal holidays, two days at Thanksgiving, two weeks for Christmas vacation, and one week for Easter vacation. Elementary schools also had two weeks of parent / teacher conferences which gave the students Wednesdays off and short days for the balance of the week. The school days lasted six to six and a half hours, which included recess, nutrition breaks, lunch, and P.E.. What do we have now? Longer school days, a longer school year, and more time off. Should we go back a few decades and re-establish the values and policies from the fifties? What happened to the "don't fix it if it ain't broke " philosophy?

There cannot be a one size fits all policy in education. Children learn at different speeds and must be accommodated. Children learn different subjects at different rates. One child may excel at math but has a problem with history. We need to understand that every child will not have the ability nor achieve the academic skills to continue on to college. These children may have the talent and common sense for vocational jobs which would put a Rhodes Scholar to shame. Industrial classes such as wood shop, metal shop, auto shop, and drafting have been beneficial to many students.

Physical Education is a must for all levels of school. It promotes a healthy lifestyle, allows stress to be released, teaches competition, and promotes team effort. It's fun too.

The English as a Second Language program needs to be modified. Most of the teachers I have talked to single out his program as the major cause of our schools failing academically. When we lower the standards to become politically correct and accomodate all of the various skill levels of our students, the more advanced and moderate students suffer. We need to keep the standards high and bring the students up to that level. Why does it seem that students from some foreign countries always excel to the top of their class? Is it because everyone from those specific countries are smarter or is it that education is a priority in those families. Why do we have children from foreign countries or first generation Americans speaking and writing english better than some children whose families have been here for centuries? Is it their abilities or is it their values and quest for a better life for themselves?

Teacher's skills and methods need to be revised to get the most from their students. Children learn and retain more from teachers who make the process more exciting and fun.

Parents need to be involved in their children's education process. They need to explain the value of an education to their children. They need to know what their children are doing in school and enforce the curriculum at home. Parents must teach their children to respect their teachers and all other adults. Children who are incorrigible should not be allowed to ruin the opportunity for other children to get an education.

A child does not have the "right" to an education. The taxpayers provide every child the opportunity to get a quality education. It's up to the children and parents to make to best of what's provided for them. Students and faculty members should not be in fear of violence at their schools or workplace. There should be a zero tolerance policy on violence.

Where do we begin? I believe you start at the top, set an example so others are willing to make adjustments down the proverbial corporate ladder. (Why should you expect your subordinates to make changes / sacrifices if you won't?) Reduce the salaries of the top administrators, chancellors, deans, etc.. If the Governor is the equivalent of the state's C.E.O. then no state employee should receive a salary higher than the governor's. Does this mean increase the governor's salary to exceed the state's current highest paid position? Absolutely not! It means bring down everybody's salaries which currently exceed the governor's salary.

Are colleges more concerned with the status of their professors than the quality of education for its students? I've heard over the years that the advances and discoveries a professor finds helps the status of the schools. This is true. While a Nobel Peace Prize recipient may be a boom for a college's stature, does it actually help the quality of the education that the students receive? Why are we paying professors to teach if it's their understudy who's actually doing the teaching? Is this cost effective?

Next, we need to reduce costs. In some subjects, such as math and english, there haven't been many changes over the years. One plus one is still two and ain't, still ain't proper english. How many years are we using the same books? If it's currently three years, extend it to four or five years to reduce our costs. The books from my school years would still provide a quality education. Science and technology have advanced and there's over forty years of history that's been updated, but do today's books cover the right material or are they just politically correct? Are the sports programs cost effective?

Are the schools energy efficient? Would retrofitting them be cost effective? Raise the retirement age to sixty for all state employees. Are we getting the best deal on supplies and services? The list goes on and on. Employees are the best source to find waste in their workplace. If they realize cutting costs will allow jobs to be saved and wages to remain stable, more solutions will follow.

Bill Chambers - GOP Candidate for Governor 22010

(I am a product of California's school system starting kindergarten in 1961 through my last college years in 1976.)

Education is one thing no one can ever take away from you, but first you have to receive it.

BILL CHAMBERS FOR GOVERNOR 2010