蜜桃影视

The elections are over! Or uh, maybe they鈥檙e not. Enjoy your recounts, folks.

Whatever else comes of all this, rest assured: there will be no cooling in the United States鈥� Cold Civil War. It鈥檚 going to get worse before it gets better. We are coming apart 鈥� it鈥檚 as evident in our culture and economics as it is in our politics and geography. are , while economically flourishing states fume at the strugglers鈥� revanchism.

One way to tell the difference? Look for the states with robust communities of immigrant families. It鈥檚 not a perfect metric, but states with healthy, thriving economies tend to attract immigrant workers and their families. This grows their population and their tax base. It鈥檚 a healthy amplifying cycle: Folks come to work, which grows the community; they buy more things, which grows the local and regional economy; they pay taxes, which supports public investments in the area鈥檚 infrastructure.

All of this enriches the area in the present and the future. The research isn鈥檛 ambiguous: Immigrants generally follow the free market鈥檚 invisible hand to economic opportunities 鈥� and then create more for everyone else.

Too many states struggle with . Globalization, automation, and more have decimated their local economies. Their populations are 鈥� and few are able to attract . At present, that鈥檚 a key difference shaping California鈥檚 and Michigan鈥檚 divergent fortunes.

Speaking of recounts, Florida, like many swing states, lies . It鈥檚 rich in people and benefits from of linguistic, cultural, and economic capital from new residents from elsewhere in the United States and from other countries. .

But it鈥檚 also unsure about how to engage its large immigrant community 鈥� and commensurately large group of . The state has a complex history of wrestling with its and cultural diversity. While it鈥檚 long been a gateway state for immigrants to the U.S. 鈥� of the state鈥檚 children speak a non-English language at home 鈥� Florida also designated English as its official language in .

The state鈥檚 ambivalence shows up in its recent, meandering efforts to bring its education system into compliance with federal law. Florida was the last state to have its plan for overseeing federal education dollars under the Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA, approved. The state knew it had compliance problems as soon as the new law went into place. After all, state leaders they were going to seek from the law 鈥� only to forge ahead (unsuccessfully) without making any changes.

What was at issue? ESSA requires states to provide English-learning children with academic assessments in common non-English languages so that they can demonstrate their knowledge without being limited by their still-developing English skills. This is intuitive enough: If I gave you a fourth-grade math test in Welsh, you鈥檇 probably struggle, even if you know your way around a pile of fractions. That test would really just reflect your (lack of) Welsh skills.

But Florida really 鈥� 鈥� didn鈥檛 want to provide assessments in other languages for English-learning students. In round after round of revisions, the state shuffled other pieces of its plan, but this remained constant.

The U.S. Department of Education pushed back a few times, but, after several rounds of bureaucratic shuffling, the state more or less wandered ahead with its initial, noncompliant plan. 鈥淭he gamble paid off,鈥� . The state still isn鈥檛 letting English learners (ELs) take academic assessments in Spanish ().

That wasn鈥檛 the only problem. ESSA requires states to include ELs鈥� progress towards English language proficiency in its school ratings. Florida 鈥� was . After a pile of revisions, the state to keep its existing school ratings system, while also calculating a separate rating using the ESSA rules. ELs鈥� English acquisition will be explicitly included in the ESSA rating, but not in the other. Local civil rights advocates the ESSA version a 鈥渟hadow system.鈥�

What鈥檚 going on? In a moment when so many states are gasping for the human (and financial) capital that immigrants contribute, Florida鈥檚 reticence to perform even the basic elements of supporting these young children鈥檚 multilingual development is, well, baffling.

Most ELs are second- or third-generation immigrants. They鈥檙e born here. They鈥檙e the and the in our workforce. The Sunshine State has a booming population and a commensurately bright future. It鈥檚 one of the winners in our great shuffling of the national economic decks. Why do anything to slow that down 鈥� or mess it up?

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