Denver Public Schools Get Political with DACA Support

Image via Denver Public Schools Email to Parents

When Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Trump administration was repealing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), anyone with half a brain knew there would be wailing and lamentations throughout the land. This despite Trump clearly wanting Congress to create legislation on the issue rather than desiring to kick all of the “dreamers” out of the country. DACA was the result of President Obama’s executive order rather than being an actual law.

Complaints are to be expected, particularly in this charged political climate. However, it’s unlikely that parents really want to be lectured on matters of politics by the school systems they pay to support, whether on this issue or anything else.

Yet that’s precisely what happened in Denver when School Superintendent Tom Boasberg sent this out to parents:

Dear DPS Community,

Today’s decision by the Trump Administration to end the DACA program is shortsighted, misguided and deeply harmful to the DPS community.

We are all dreamers. And our nation was built by dreamers from all around the globe. America’s open arms have made us richer, stronger and kinder. Our DACA students, many of whom have been in DPS virtually their entire lives, have extraordinary talents and potential to contribute to our community. Our community has already invested much in their education and has so much to gain by fully including them rather than excluding them.

We will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with our DACA dreamers and to advocate that DACA protections become the law of the land.

And we want our families and our community to know that our schools remain open and welcoming to all. Please rest assured that DPS will:

• continue to educate all students — a Constitutionally-guaranteed right, regardless of immigration status;
• continue our practice of not collecting or maintaining any information about our students’ immigration status;
• ensure that all students are treated with the dignity and respect that they deserve;
• continue to do everything in our lawful power to protect our students’ confidential information.

We will continue to stand up and speak out — with our students and educators, and for them — for a brighter future in a nation that is not darkened by fear. Instead, we need to continue, with strong and open arms, to build a great nation that it is lifted up by the hopes and dreams of all of our people.

Best,
Tom

Lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle appear to want to do something for the so-called dreamers. After all, they didn’t illegally cross the borders themselves, they were brought across at a young age and have practically no ties to their nations of origin.

That said, there’s something inherently wrong about a school system using taxpayer resources to take a political position on what is typically a fairly charged topic, namely illegal immigration. Boasberg used the school system’s mailing list to distribute his political thoughts. He most likely used school staff to help him format the email as this wasn’t a simple text-only message like you’d send to Mom — which means staff members were involved in the creation of this. That alone makes this a gross misuse of public funds.

After all, Boasberg clearly states the system will advocate for a political outcome, namely DACA-like protections, to become federal law again.

Does Boasberg think every family with children in the Denver Public Schools agrees with him? Obviously not, because someone forwarded the email on to PJ Media. I’m willing to bet that the person who forwarded the message isn’t the only one to resent tax dollars being used to advocate politics.

Regardless of what you think of DACA, can’t we agree that our tax dollars shouldn’t be squandered by bureaucrats in order to take a political position, no matter what that happens to be?