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How much longer our schools will remain open?

This week marks our eighth year writing these columns. By chance, it also marks the end of the school year in many districts across the country. When the school year ends, I always ask myself if one day schools will be closed never to be reopened. According to a recent study, it seems that day is closer than we think.

Last weekend I spoke with dozens of young Latino students who want to go to college. One of them –who came to the U.S. as a young boy– told me he was taking AP English, and he was doing well, but he was removed from that class once the teacher realized his parents were not native English-speakers.

Another young man said he was unable to meet with his school counselor. Not even once he could meet with her. He was told the counselor was busy with “other” students who were more of a “priority” for the school. The message was clear: being a Latino teen son of immigrants, his education was not a priority.

A young Latina, born in America, told me she was asked to leave the early college classes she was taking at school. When she asked for an explanation, she was told those seats were not assigned to “immigrants.” It was useless, she said, to protest and to try to prove she was American.

I had to confess that I thought that by chance I happened to be surrounded by people facing that kind of situation. I also thought they were just exception and perhaps they were unintentionally exaggerating their problem.

But then I read a story about a letter send by the U.S. Department of Education on May 6l, 2011, to school administrators all over the country. The letter reminded the administrators that, by federal law, they should fulfill their educational duties regardless of the immigration situation of their students.

The letter, signed by Russelyn Ali, assistant secretary for civil rights in the Department of Education, said that many elementary and secondary schools are in fact “discouraging” the enrolment of immigrant children and of children of immigrants. According to the letter, that situation has a “chilling effect” on school enrolment.

It seems ridiculous to think that only those born here or only those whose parents were born here deserve to be accepted at our schools. But remember that just a few generations ago several groups (women, minorities) were excluded from the educational system.

If schools discriminate and exclude many students (as it is suggested in the letter by the Department of Education), and if at the same time schools are becoming more and more obsolete, why do we still need schools and when are they going to be closed for good?

According to recent report by the Harvard Graduate School of Education, that day may arrive in the next 10 to 15 years, because by then education will depend on “unmediated relations and broad-based social networks.” What a paradox! Schools will soon be replaced by education.

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