There is no Farmers Branch school district. But that could change if the mayor of Farmers Branch, Tim O'Hare, has his way. He's exploring whether the city of Farmers Branch can withdraw from both the Carrollton-Farmers Branch and Dallas Independent School Districts and form its own school district. (Read The Dallas Morning News stories here and here.)
After the jump, what triggered the mayor of Farmers Branch to involve himself in the public schools? Hint: it has something to do with "traditional American values." That's code for it has something to do with Hispanics.
Mayor O'Hare doesn't believe the existing school districts that Farmers Branch residents (citizens?) belong to exhibit "traditional American values." Specifically, O'Hare is upset that the activist group LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens) has a program to mentor high school students to encourage them to stay in school. That's the same group that campaigned against a 2007 referendum on a Farmers Branch city ordinance that requires apartment tenants to provide proof of legal residency in this country. According to The Dallas Morning News, "the city has spent nearly $4 million defending itself from litigation in the last four years."
I don't have much to say about Farmers Branch and their misguided notions about the Constitution and "traditional American values." But I do have a couple of things that I want to say about Richardson.
- Thank you, Richardson City Council, for sticking to police and fire protection, street repairs and parks and recreation, and letting others who know something about education worry about our public schools. Thank you.
- Thank you, Richardson ISD, for the quality of education you provide to students in Richardson, Dallas and Garland, making the RISD the largest, most diverse district in Texas to receive a "Recognized" rating from the Texas Education Agency, which it has done for five consecutive years. That's right, "most diverse". Thank you.
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According to this morning's story in The Dallas Morning News, Farmers Branch Mayor Tim O'Hare said: 'There needs to be an avenue for us to create legal residency for our own immigrant friends, neighbors and co-workers when the black letter of the law that sits there looks like it would prohibit it.' Gotcha! O'Hare didn't really say this. O'Hare isn't interested in fixing our badly flawed immigration laws to simplify the path to citizenship for people who have lived and worked productively in the US for years and years. The real quote has O'Hare talking about changing the law to allow Farmers Branch to form its own school district. Apparently, O'Hare thinks we must simply enforce existing law, not change it to to deal with our illegal immigration problem, but when it's some law that O'Hare himself doesn't like, then changing the law to get what he wants is fine.
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