Portland is an island of diversity in America’s whitest state. It is the economic hope for Maine’s future survival. The key is addressing the city’s schools with over 40 percent multicultural students of color.
These students are not the American-born “anchor” babies of “illegal” Mexican immigrants that presidential candidate Donald Trump characterized as “bringing drugs, bringing crime,” and “rapists.”
For Portland Mayor Michael Brennan, no immigration means “an underutilization of human capital.” Failed efforts to repeal state support for immigrant asylum seekers, he earlier added, disproportionately affects his city and a mostly college educated people. Immigration is needed to address what U.S. Sen. Angus King calls a Maine “demographic time bomb,” because of lack of skilled workers and a drop in school enrollment. The senator emphasized at a Portland press conference in July that supporting immigrants “isn’t simply humanitarian — though that’s an important part of it — it’s economic survival for this state.”
More than most of the nation, Maine needs immigrants to fuel its economic growth. However, hostility toward immigrants in the presidential campaigns once again questions their value in a nation founded by immigrants. History tells us what happens when we encourage, then fail to welcome immigrants, especially young ones. Social instability ensues when impoverished students, lacking public assistance, lose hope in segregated neighborhoods.
Portland schools mirror a major national urban demographic shift in an economy that requires a college education. The students and faculty in local public colleges must be prepared to reflect this demographic change. A short-term key factor can be advocacy by multicultural parents.
During the 1960s, I went to segregated California “Mexican” schools, and my Los Angeles high school had an over 60 percent dropout rate. I remember my father successfully advocating that I take a college-required class. America’s economy was booming, and a growing Mexican American “Chicano Movement” pressed for federal assistance to integrate students like me into a changing society. High school student walk-outs and civil rights protests resulted in full financial support from the University of Southern California. After graduation, I received Ford Foundation Mexican American graduate fellowships that led to my earning master’s and doctoral degrees.
My life was transformed: A liberal arts education enabled me to work as an executive for the world’s biggest bank and America’s sixth largest publicly owned utility.
It was a time of overt regional racism. Latinos today, mostly of Mexican background, now nationally account for 95 percent of population growth among U.S. teens; 50,000 of them will turn 18 every month for the next 20 years. America is more culturally integrated, and many Portland parents are anxious about generational and socioeconomic changes. In 15 years, and especially for America’s most elderly state, Maine, retiring baby boomers like me will require half the federal budget to support their Social Security and Medicare. Paying for that will require college-educated multicultural students. Without their presence, Portland would have to close one-third of its public schools.
The anxiety for those Portland parents experiencing state cuts and rising local property taxes with a diminishing middle-class status is that the future looks even more dismal for all future college-aspiring students. Almost half of loan-indebted students who graduate from college will face either unemployment or low-end jobs not requiring a college degree. In the next 10 years, 70 percent of America’s new jobs will pay low wages.
Even Portland’s affluent parents are part of a declining economic status that affects 90 percent of Americans. Yet they are culturally positioned to advocate in public schools for their children. Unfortunately, the advocacy of my father is not familiar to Portland’s newly immigrated multicultural parents. This affects why many of their children lack institutional support for college aspirations. Advocating personally for family, mainstream Portland parents are left to conclude that a public school “problem” is simply one of impoverished students of color not being able to keep up with their children. But studies support the need for parental advocacy that improves student performance.
On Monday, Sept. 14, First Parish of Portland will hold a public forum with Maine leaders in public education. Panelists will share thoughts on what needs to be done regarding student educational performance, higher education access and future economic opportunity. An underlying goal they all share at the outset is that multicultural public educational success in a more equitable economy is needed in Portland to drive Maine’s future success.
Ralph C. Carmona is an adjunct professor at Southern Maine Community College. He will moderate the Sept. 14. forum, which will take place from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Carmona also is chair of the First Parish of Portland Faith in Action Committee. He can be reached at ralphcarmona@gmail.com.