Laws: July, 2003 - Number #06

The federal Migrant Education Program is the largest of the Big 4 programs that provide over $1 billion a year in grants to local government agencies and nonprofits to assist the migrant and seasonal workers and their families with education, health and job training services. The federal government spent $380 million on MEP in FY01, up from $282 million in 1990. State and local education agencies receive funds for each student enrolled, and about 665,000 MEP-eligible students were enrolled in recent years, generating an average $535 a student. Children are eligible for MEP services for up to three years after their last qualifying move. Southwest Texas State University received a five-year $2.8 million government contract for its Center for Migrant Education to support and improve the interstate and intrastate coordination of activities, programs and agencies concerned with the education, health and welfare of migrant children. Maine's Migrant Education Program has enrolled 9,000 children, which is apparently too many. The state Department of Education says that the agency that identifies MEP-eligible children, Maine Migrant Family Resource Center in Danforth with a $700,000 a year budget, made mistakes. The purpose of MEP is to provide services to children who move frequently, as parents who follow the crops. California, which enrolled 250,000 children in MEP and received $121 million in FY01, also does not have sufficient records to show that the enrolled children qualify for MEP services. Migrancy is declining, and many "migrant" farm worker children do not move. More poor children in urban neighborhoods may change schools as their parents cope with changed jobs and housing. In 2001-02, 25 percent of the students in the Los Angeles Unified School District changed schools at least once during the year. Los Angeles has the second-lowest rate of home ownership among large US cities, which makes families less anchored to a neighborhood. Florida reported 56,213 migrant students in 2000-01; 68 percent of those enrolled in Migrant Education spoke Spanish as their native language. The Migrant Health Program in 1962 provided federal funds to serve migrant and later seasonal farm workers and their children after Congress rejected collective bargaining rights for farm workers. Migrant Health celebrated its 40th anniversary in May 2003, and reported that 125 US health centers provided care to 600,000 farm worker and dependent patients in 2002. Michael Doyle, "California Criticized For Migrant Education Oversight," Modesto Bee, June 11, 2003. Solomon Moore, "Students on the move face special hurdles," Los Angeles Times, April 23, 2003.