SAGINAW (Michigan) NEWS

August 9, 2009

Michigan's number of migrant students declining

by Tom Gilchrist | The Saginaw News

With fewer migrant families hoeing weeds in Michigan bean and sugar beet fields, schools have culled summer education programs for their children.

About 55 of the programs operated in Michigan when the state's migrant-education system peaked in the early 1990s, said Rachael E. Moreno of the state Department of Education. About 38 remain, including those in St. Charles and Reese.

"Even though there are smaller numbers of students, they still get one-on-one time with teachers, so it's still a beneficial program whether we service 30 children or 100," said Michelle Mitchell, director of the Summer Migrant Program for 35 children attending classes at St. Charles Elementary School.

Many of the children bussed to St. Charles come from migrant camps in southern Midland County, Mitchell said.

"We're providing as much educational support as we possibly can for this at-risk population that moves around from school district to school district, or from state to state," said John K. Dohrmann, director of the Summer Migrant Program teaching about 35 children at Reese Elementary School.

The Reese-based program also sends "outreach" teachers to the homes of about 200 more migrant children in 11 counties several times each month.

"You never want to tell a child that there's anything wrong with ... their heritage or their background," Dohrmann said. "As an educator, you want the kids to have a choice. You don't want them to feel as if they're slotted into a certain economic level."

Federal funding for Michigan's summer migrant programs has declined for about six years, Moreno said.

"The trend has been for us to receive less money each year, because the funding is based on student counts," said Moreno, estimating the state's Summer Migrant Program will serve about 4,700 children this year.

Use of herbicides, machines and genetically-engineered seed has helped reduced the need for migrant labor, especially on the east side of the state, educators said.

Products such as "Roundup Ready" seed lead to crops that tolerate Roundup herbicide, which kills other vegetation when applied to fields. When herbicide kills weeds, farmers may not hire migrants to hoe.

"Certainly, in this area, the chemicals that are getting used have taken the place of a lot of the field work, such as when we hear about Roundup-Ready beet seed," Dohrmann said.

Some farmers, too, have moved toward hiring single male workers instead of migrant families, Moreno said.

"If you bring in a family of five or six, there's a mother and father and four kids, and they occupy one house," Moreno said. "If you bring in 10 guys, you can put them all the in same house and bunk 'em."

Summer migrant programs in Saginaw, Buena Vista Township, Standish, Pinconning and Bay City have gone by the wayside, educators said. The Reese-based program has broadened its reach as a result.

Its outreach teachers -- Beth Tate, Leeyann Garza and Justin Shepherd -- visit homes of migrant children, giving the kids an academic workbook and returning once or twice each week to offer academic instruction and snacks, as well as activities.

Garza, 27, of Bridgeport Township was a migrant child herself when her mother decided to live year-round in Gagetown in Tuscola County. Each summer, Garza would attend classes at Reese Elementary School, learning via the Reese Summer Migrant Program.

Officials hired Garza this year as a teacher.

"We focus on academics, but we try to do some things with the kids they don't get to do -- we try to bring a football or baseball or art supplies with us, to do some type of fun project," Garza said.

"They treasure that type of interaction. Some of these kids live out in the middle of nowhere, and they don't get to see a lot of people. They work early and get home late. Sometimes it's just that conversation with somebody else that helps.