Now, students can go to any school in our district as long as there's room. When we opened it up to neighboring school districts, we picked up about 2,000 students and lost only 29. It's a strong financial incentive for a principal to find ways to combat the dropout rate and maintain attendance. Together with the open enrollment program and the child-centered funding, we began to structure magnet programs. We placed magnet schools primarily in our lower income area, but they have brought in children from all over the county.
Every child walks out of that school trilingual.
Being on the border of Texas and Mexico, many of these parents all of a sudden see value in themselves when they see their language and culture being appreciated by the school rather than being suppressed and eradicated. They tell everybody that in order to learn English, you ought to be in a bilingual program. I don't think you learn English in a bilingual program, or in any program. You learn English on the playground, you learn English in the streets, you learn English in the home. That builds up an entrenched group of people who don't have to produce.